Five Frugal Things -- Garage Sale After Party
1) I went to the library to pick up a Read4Life Adult Summer Reading game card. Unlike previous years where adults have just the possibility of winning something, this year's readers get a tote bag when they complete the challenge.
The librarian did warn me there's a limited supply, which may be the motivation I need to read every day this summer!
2) I scored a Lucky Day copy of Emma Straub's American Fantasy, which I put on hold back in April! I have no idea what's it's about, but Straub is one of my favorite authors and I'm excited that my next read ready to go.
3) I spent a couple of late afternoon hours driving through Laurelhurst neighborhood's garage sale day, hunting for post-garage sale freebies. I refer to this as a "Garage sale after party" and it's one of my favorite summer activities.
I'd hoped to find an Ikea item to test out their buy-back program, which is why I brought home the above discontinued "Sporren" chair. Unfortunately, it's not one of the furniture pieces that they take. Luckily the price was right.
No problem though, as it took just a few minutes to photograph and list on Facebook Marketplace for $20. It's in perfect condition, so I know someone will buy it.
Mostly what I grabbed from the after party were books. I'll give Powell's Books first crack to buy them and then keep them on hand to stock my little free library. It's nice to have Powell's store credit on hand for gift giving.
4) I only found one thing to sell on eBay, which was this Lululemon studded belt bag.
Not a brand I choose for myself, but many other people do. It was a little grubby, so I gave it a soak and a gentle scrub with Fels-Naptha, which brightened it up considerably.
There, that's better!
5) Today is Father's Day and the first one since my dad died. Luckily he hated what he called "Hallmark holidays," so I'm not missing out on any traditions. I'd always call him and his response invariably was, "Oh, is it Father's Day? I really don't care about that." I do miss him, just not more today than any other day.
My husband does like Father's Day, so the kids and I will treat him to a restaurant meal, which is his preferred way to celebrate.
Edit: My husband decided he actually wanted to barbecue at the house, which was both delicious and much more relaxing that braving a restaurant on Father's Day.
Please enjoy the photo we used for the birth announcement of our daughter back in 1995. I remember that we had the backdrop all set up in the living room and we had to wait for our newborn to be alert enough to photograph. We borrowed the pipe from my father.
Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?
Thank you for sharing that beautiful photo. Unrelated to this particular post, but the one featuring that cute Kate Spade tablecloth - your house is so warm and beautiful. I was listening to the Catching Up to Fi podcast last week and had an architect as a guest and they were discussing craftsman houses and how beautiful and timeless they are and I kept telling myself: Katy owns one!
Thank you so much for your kind words. These houses are mostly the standard in Portland.
I had a very detailed post and it’s gone. Sad.
1. Picked up a Herschel backpack for DD30 from a curb alert. Like new, color is “Ash Rose”
2. Bought some high quality jigsaw puzzles from a woman who over time lost her vision to macular degeneration. I paid the asking price of $3 each.
3. Made a vegetarian tikka masala for dinner tonight with chickpeas, diced elderly carrots and frozen petite peas. And a tikka masala paste.
4. Utility prices in Greater Boston are obscene with “delivery charges” exceeding my usage, often by a lot! I’m leaning on small appliances for cooking this Summer.
5. I use the “speed wash” and “tap cold” for most laundry these days except sheets and towels.
MEM,
Energy prices in Ohio is outrageous too! Our so called transmission fees are also great than our usage. I blame the AI and data centers usage being passed on to the residents. They are very quietly buying up farm land here. I am sure political hands are being greased, and tax cuts offered.
Johanna, I suspect you're right about the reasons for the transmission fees (or, as National Grid here calls them, "delivery services"). And, MEM, I'm guessing that NG may be your utility company too. I just got a bill, and here are the facts: My "supply services" (i.e., my actual consumption) for May 18 to June 17 came to all of $3.20 for gas and $0 for electricity (thank you again, DH, for insisting on those solar panels). "Delivery services" were $26.48 for gas and $19.59 for electricity. I smell some rats.
The birth announcement….. priceless!!!
If only I'd had a 1950's style dress to complete the aesthetic.
Your daughter was an adorable baby and I'm sure still is.
1. I took DH out for lunch yesterday to a place with outdoor tables. He got one of his favorites, a Reuben sandwich and was very happy with it.
2. Today we had a cookout with family including his sons and grandchildren for Fathers Day. Like Mr. NCA, he enjoys the holiday. This was at his son's mother in law's house on a lake. We were also treated to a boat ride and strawberry shortcake.
3. I hung a load of clothes outside before we left this morning and I took them down when we got home.
4. At the hostesses request I made an appetizer. I made it with Italian sausage, an onion, applesauce and brown sugar. Easy and besides the cost of the sausage pretty inexpensive. She asked me to bring a dessert too so I baked a Swedish Almond Cake and gave her the leftovers.
5. Today I wore a pair of Eddy Bauer capris I bought at the Salvation Army Store and a favorite old shirt. No fancy duds for me or DH who wore a button down shirt we picked up at the Salvation Army Store along with a pair of khaki shorts he's had for years.
Christine,
Sounds like you had a great time at the lake. As for your #5, I call it the Salvation Armani!
That chair looks so cute with your desk and lamp.
1. It was an indoor day for me -- rain, cool temps, fatigue, sore muscles all kept me inside. I watched Season 2 of The Four Seasons on Netflix. And read a lot. I'm reading a LFL book, Love Marriage by Monica Ali.
2. I made chicken and black bean soup, which also contains corn, tomatoes, and jalapeno. I halved the recipe because a normal recipe makes way too much and my freezer is small.
3. I did some rearranging in the freezer, so I'll be able to find things more easily, and use them up more efficiently.
4. I had a brief power outage this morning. Everything came back on, but I couldn't open the apps in my streaming services. I googled a bit and found out how to reset the fire stick, which did the trick.
5. I plugged up some spaces around my window air conditioners.
Love the photo!
Didn’t do much today. Took a nice, long walk this morning and saw a woman standing in our goose poop filled pond, barefoot, fishing. So gross. Then I came home, had leftovers and took a nap.
I’ve been knitting a small sweater for my grand niece to wear in the fall. She’s the 13th grand nibling of mine. All the pieces are done, I’m just doing the ribbing around the front band and neck.
Spent the day in Boston on Friday. Free transportation on our commuter rail and subway systems. I was at the Boston Common when the Scots crowned our George Washington statue. Bagpipes, men and kilts, handsome Scottish men wearing amazing cologne, it was a perfect afternoon. I also ran into a coworker of mine, so we picked up some beer and sat in the Boston Common watching the USA/AUS game. We also had two of our Patriots with kilts on, they were videoed, and you can see me walking along the back of the group.
I had picked up a few jalapeño peppers, crookneck yellow squash, and tomato plants at Lowes two weeks ago. They’re growing very well, shockingly. I haven’t done well with vegetables the last few years. I also planted a bunch of cucumber seeds from 2010. I didn’t think any of them would come up, so I planted a 3 foot row. They all came up. I’m hoping to get a bunch of pickling cucumbers this year.
I have a travel bug and a lot of miles. But I am leaning heavily towards a PNW trip in September. Vancouver, train to Seattle, train to Portland. I just have to pull the plug and book the flights. The two flights will only cost me about 30 K miles. Whereas, flying overseas, would cost me the majority of my miles. Flights overseas are so expensive.
On a sidenote, I haven’t been on FB since 2020. But I would love to jump on FB marketplace and check things out. Do you still have to verify who you are in order to create an account to check out FB marketplace? I could create a fake Gmail address But I don’t want FB having my personal information.
1. I'm watching episodes of Doc Martin for free on Hoopla through my library.
2. Took a picnic to the park this morning and all 3 of our adult children were there! Plus 2 grandchildren. Fun and lower cost way to socialize. I left all the leftovers for Dh and son to eat as they work on renovating son's bathroom. It has been a bigger and longer job than expected (as usually is with older homes) and they are working like dogs to get it done. But they are saving about $10,000 in labor costs. We are so glad we have organized our lives to have the time and flexibility to help like this. Dh is a teacher so this is his summer vacation.
3. Happy to come home to cooler weather, put away my things, gather laundry to run tomorrow when it's cheaper electricity, eat some nachos and go to bed. I have plums from my neighbor and kale from my garden. That will be my fruit and veggies for the week. This will be week #2 of having no car.
4. The family meal trays at Wholefoods come in 2 options, choose your own protein and sides for $35, or the pre-prepared trays for $26.99. Same amount of food. Dd got the cheaper one for her work lunches this week since she was away all weekend. She despises cooking and meal prep was always such a chore. Thank you Katy for alerting me to the Wholefoods meal trays!
5. A friend dropped off some free mulch while I was away. What a lovely treat to come back to!
1. An unexpected no grandson day meant time to do a lot of big and small projects. I've listed 5 pairs of jeans on Marketplace - #2 son dropped them in my living room and I was going to donate, but inspired by you all I thought I'd try posting. He was (and still is) very skinny and tall, so I am sure someone will be looking for size 28/34 gently used jeans. Priced to sell as a lot, fingers crossed as I haven't been doing much at all on Marketplace.
I separately listed another single pair of slightly different size (and for a higher price as it is name brandish, not 'store' branded)
I also listed an Instant Pot slow cooker that my Thrift Store Buddy had dropped on my kitchen table; we thought #1 son would try to sell on Marketplace but he wasn't interested. I got it photographed and posted, and moved off the table, LOL. I will drop the price each week until it goes!
2. I offered a hanging clothes rack for a car on our local Buy Nothing group, it was snapped up (And picked up) quickly. It came with a car we got from a young man who I believe used it to hang his skiing clothing. The new recipent has started a small clothing company and was delighted with the offer.
3. I spent some time in the garden actually harvesting not weeding or watering – shocking to me, and so satisfying. Broad beans (favas), snap peas and english peas, two kinds of lettuce, a large quantity of Arugula (I know I keep saying it is done, however I still seem to find more!!) and lots of kale. I gritted my teeth when I got it all inside and washed and spun dry all the greens and got them into the fridge. Then I ate a huge bowl of snap peas. Yum
4. I walked in our local pride parade, which is so delightfully small town and laid back: no marching bands or music, just a bunch of local groups and organizations and even individuals walking a kilometer long route ending up in the small town square where there was both music and lots of display tents (tonnes of information booths, others with things for sale) I got some cool swag including striped rainbow sox that I'll put away for next year's event.
It was very very very well attended (both walkers and folk lining the way with (!!) lawn chairs). I just am thrilled to see such a turnout of support for the Pride community – I would estimate that 80% of the people walking were allies.
My team coordinated itself beautifully with matching shirts, a borrowed (head office) banner, and lots of random rainbow bling. We've roped a new-to-the-area keener into the group by welcoming her warmly when she showed up to walk.
5. My #2 son came by to poke away at cleaning up his digs – he'll come next weekend with his girlfriend to do the deep much needed scrubbing. He gave himself a month to move and is using it all – although he did look less exhausted when he came by, which was a bonus.
I figured he was going to get hungry, so I made a 15 min pesto pasta – in the time it takes to boil the water and cook the noodles I chopped a pepper, a cucumber, some homegrown scallions, some cheese, and some snap peas. I threw the peas into the pasta water for the last minute of cooking. Drained it all, added the veggies, pesto and some olives, heated it up just a bit, then added the cheese chunks right at the end. We sat out on the East facing porch and inhaled.
After he had loaded his car again, I gave him a much needed haircut, and he showered in my place as his bathroom here has lost its shower curtain, LOL. I gave him half of the two kinds of lettuce I had just harvested and washed, half of the arugula, and half of the snap peas.
We then each jumped into our own vehicles and went to the scratch and dent vegetable store – only to discover that they were putting away a lot of the veggies! I guess the last hour they are open is hit and miss. He did get some discount items and I pointed out the good sale items – and he drove away happy. I picked some sale items and got away for under $5, with savings (per the receipt) of almost the same, however I was mostly there to continue teaching him my frugal shopping ways, which he keeps asking me to do. Good thing I like to grocery shop for deals!.
What a fun reading challenge! It's nice to see reading engagement programs for adults. Way to go, library!
1. I don't remember if I heard about it here or somewhere else, but my Libby request for "Yesteryear" by Caro Claire Burke is finally available. I placed the hold back in May and was several hundred in line so it was a nice surprise to wake up and see it was available!
2. I had planned on making pizza the other night *Insert manic laughter* but it was 87f outside and probably 78f at best inside. (Damn the Airbnb hosts who don't provide means of cooling their non-AC equipped homes! Okay, rant over for now) So rather than bake pizza, I used a large, deep pan and cobbled together some instructions from a few Pinterest recipes. I don't have cast iron but it did turn out quite well!
3. We've made granola bars and popcorn to snack on rather than purchase treats, although the temptation is very high!
4. I pushed out our quarterly order of Harry's razors and shave/hair product as we have PLENTY! I've been cutting my husband's hair for a while and it seems to be saving money on both the cuts AND styling so double win!
5. My husband is walking with the kids to the grocery store to pick up a few of the items we forgot when we did our big trip the other day and I'm buckling down and getting laundry folded. Gotta take advantage of our in-airbnb washer and dryer!
Love the photo!
Just 3 things today.
1. Family was all traveling plus Hubby isn’t keen on celebrations in his honor so I talked him into going to the “fancy” farmer’s market. After buying what was on my list we treated ourselves to fruit “tartlets” and sat and listened to the band playing. Hubby has become a drummer in retirement so enjoyed watching the one in this group.
2. I made a large pot of minestrone soup and we had some for dinner with fresh peaches for dessert.
3. I have a full body skin check doctor’s appointment this afternoon. I grew up when getting sunburns and using suntan lotion not sunscreen were the norm so this is important for me to do and included in my insurance.
This weekend was not quite a frugal accomplishment, but a few highlights:
1. Stayed at my sister's to visit family as always, instead of getting a hotel.
2. I raided my mom's "abandoned project" yarn stash for my future projects. Priorities are baby blankets for all the friends having kids and a few new things to try, including learning to make lace.
3. My stupid catnip plant got stupid aphids. I was able to contain it from the rest of my garden (all in pots) and I'm trying to treat with soapy water and cinnamon in the soil to evict their ant overlords. I am very against buying another product to treat so fingers crossed this works.
4. Went out for brunch yesterday and brought home most of a pasta dish. DH and I split it for dinner last night.
5. Hit the grocery store further away that was way cheaper. This has become a trend and I love hunting for deals! We estimate we got $200 worth of groceries for $150 that would have easily been $300 at the shop closer to us.
Re your #5 - that kind of savings makes the trip SO worthwhile, doesn't it? I'm lucky that my closest Grocery store (3 min drive) is the cheapest regular grocer in this valley, with some excellent loss leaders as well as frequent 'get them while you can' highly reduced close to best-by-date pantry items.
The scratch and dent veggie store (10 min drive) tried to raise their prices about a year ago, and saw an immediate decrease in clientele and sales, so they are back to their regular lower (ish) prices - I can buy a bag of veggies, often two, for under $20- it would cost up to three times that at even the inexpensive grocery.
My challenge now is to not over-buy as I am feeding only me, rather than three of us. Eek
Absolutely!! And there are some things I cannot bring myself to pay for (like $11 for a watermelon!) that when I find a deal I'm so excited 🙂
1) We just returned from a 2 night camping trip on Saturday. We all had a great time! The kids had a bit more freedom there, riding their bikes all over the campground and going off to climb on logs and tree stumps and explore. Camping is so cheap too (once you own the equipment). We went with another family, they made dinner one night and we did the other, and then we each provided our own breakfasts and lunches. I just brought our regular food from home so not much extra spent on food. There was also no cell service at all there, I left my phone in the car the whole time, it was very freeing to have no obligation to check or respond to anything!
2) I fell a little behind in using up all the vegetables I have right now. I chopped up some zucchini and celery that was about to become unuseable and froze them, I think they’ll be fine in a soup. I’m planning to make a roasted veggie hummus platter for book club this Friday which will use up more zucchini, broccoli, cauliflower. I ordered some dill last week as part of a grocery pickup order, rather than being the little plastic package of it I was expecting, it was an enormous bunch of dill in a plastic grocery bag. I love dill but not sure how I’ll use all this, time to do some research!
3) I thought I might have to buy this months book club read because I was still on the hold list at the library. The audiobook version just came through on holds though and I think I can speed through it before Friday.
I finally got around to going to the scrap metal yard and taking the former roommate's non-operational, dangerous, portable, metal electric heater there. She left it behind and I'm tired of it being in the garage. Figured I'd sell it for scrap and I knew I wouldn't get as much as a dollar for it. Yes, I came into some money: I got a whopping 63 cents for my one item. They're paying 7 cents per pound today. Not enough to pay for the gas (currently down to $3.08/gal.) to drive over there. Well, it would've been enough to buy 2 soda pops in the break room vending machine at the store, plus 3 cents leftover. But when I left the metal recycler's office, a homeless person came up to me and asked for 50 cents to help buy food. So I gave her the Kennedy 1/2-dollar coin I'd just received. Anyway, I feel good that I kept something out of the city landfill and made absolutely sure no one got it and tried to plug it in. The former roommate (aka The Roommate from Hell) almost burned the house down trying to use it. (Yes, I told her and her family to come get the rest of her stuff. No, they didn't and it's been 3+ years.) I can rest easy knowing that the dangerous item is now smashed and flattened, awaiting being transported to a smelter somewhere. That was today's frugal adventure.
Such a cute birth announcement photo of you with your daughter! hee hee I love it. Sweet memory!