Five Frugal Things -- Rusty Fixture, Begone!
1) We've been living with the above light fixture since I thrifted it back in 2014. (Click HERE to read that blog post!) It wasn't rusty when I shelled out $2.99 to Goodwill, but 12 years in a steamy bathroom did some damage.
Sure, I was able to sand down the surface rust, but that never going to be more than a temporary solution.
Random $3.50 light fixture to the rescue!
It did have the smallest amount of superficial rust, but I gave it a quick scrub with Barkeeper's Friend powder and then my husband sprayed it with a sealant.
Hopefully this version will last more than twelve years!
2) My youngest is still vacationing in Montana, which means my husband and I get to enjoy cat cuddles without the responsibility (or expense) of pet ownership.
"Myr" and "Mama's Little Meatball" really are the most enjoyable kitties, even though they're hard to photograph due to their coloration:
Okay, one more!
Kittens can't leave anything unexamined.
3) Our daughter has been spending her evenings at the house, as we've been making our way through Star Trek: Strange New Worlds. (Through a free Paramount+ trial.) She also took full advantage of our free laundry facilities and I'm pretty sure that our washer and dryer ran seven extra loads of laundry this week! If you're wondering why so much laundry -- she brought four full sized blankets to be washed!
Hey, I'm happy to help her save money any way that I can.
4) My husband and I stopped for a deli lunch while out and about and split an entree, which was good as our Italian sandwich was fairly mediocre. Hate to have bought two of them!
My husband is often hesitant to split entrees, but I've finally broken through after 33 years of marriage with the line "We can always order more if it isn't enough."
I feel like that line works in a number of ways in a number of situations.
5) My sister might be back in NYC, but her two week visit left me with hand knit socks and a hand crafted basket, perfectly sized for remote controls.
This is what happens when you have crafty people in the family!
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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1. I picked up a mystery shop yesterday, which netted me a free lunch and an additional $18 for my bank account.
2. I'm currently making homemade chicken-veg stock, with which I will make cauliflower and white bean soup, as we were given a ginormous cauliflower in the free CSA. I'll portion it and freeze it in work apartment freezer for those weeks when I don't quite get to making meals to bring. I'm also canning tomato sauce and pickling jalepeños with CSA produce. My partner also brought home an extra "corn and fruit" share, so I froze some corn off the cob, and planning tonight's and tomorrow's dinner on that.
3. I just got my bonus from Chase (for having a checking account with them for 3 months - this covered all of the lodging for 7 nights in Quebec province). I got another one of these offers from a different bank, so I just spent the last 15 minutes moving money around, as I'll close the Chase and open the new one, which will get me another nice chunk of free money.
4. I just figured out that it costs me about $3.30 to drive to work every day, and so I will make an extra effort to try to coordinate with colleagues to carpool 2 a week. I think I'm set for Wednesdays and Thursdays.
5. I did a free trial of Britbox and then canceled until they dropped the price with an offer for $4 a month, for 2 months. I used my credit card that gives me 6% back on streaming services.
New bathroom fixture looks incredible! What a refresh in there, and you sure can't beat the price of $3.50 that's for sure. LOL to your grand kitty Myr staring so intently at the "Birdie" book chapter! Both those grand kitties are so much fun to see popping up on your blog. 🙂
Ha, I hadn't even noticed that!
The picture of the two kitties snuggling...oh my word!!! SO ADORABLE.
They snuggle a lot and Meatball does a lot of grroming for Myr.
The kitten looks like the perfect Halloween cat w/ black fur & golden eyes.
I think that whenever she stands to do a back stretch.
1. After reading the recommendations in Katy's previous post, I decided to put The Calamity Club on my hold list at the library. I'm only #1085 out of 1097 people who have it on their own hold list. I guess it'll be at least a few months before I get to read it! I'll keep checking the Luck Day section for it too so maybe I'll get it sooner.
2. After buying 10 drinks at the indy bookstore, you earn a free drink. I had my free one yesterday: a Creamsicle which tastes just like the ice cream on a stick we had as a little kids. Yum.
3. I'm reading a library book, Valerie Bertinelli's memoir Getting Naked. It's ok but I'm glad I didn't pay for it.
4. I'm working on more painted rocks with nature depictions and positive messages on them to put out there into the world. An inexpensive hobby that hones my painting and calligraphy skills, gets me out walking and hopefully gives someone a lift.
How about writing "DON'T WAIT" with a red line through the N-T and WA so the secondary message is "DO IT"?
Pretty cool! I think I'll try it. Thanks.
Mediocre sandwiches aside, it sounds lovely. My younger dog has the same coloration as Mama's Little Meatball (she's a black brindle) and I have a hard time getting a good photo of her.
Even if you only get 12 years out of the new fixture before it needs to be replaced that's a very small cost per year.
Katy, what kind of sealant did you use on the bathroom fixture? I have a similar situation to address. Thank you!
1. We picked green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers and rhubarb. I roasted some tomatoes to make sauce. While oven was on I also cooked bacon and roasted pecans.
2. Took an evening walk to Lucky and bought only the 3 loss leaders on my list. We're an exciting bunch!
3. Made an enormous cucumber salad. Listed 3 overgrown cucs on Buy Nothing.
4. Managed to make dinner tonight, first time in a week. There's been a lot of sketchy meals happening. I'm usually so good at meal prep but my brain seems to be taking a break from it.
5. Picked up a few items for two different free piles on our evening walk to Lucky. Two items to sell and some activity books for my grandson.
Considering all that is going on with you Kara, you are doing great! and a free pile can always bring a bit of joy, can't it. Well done with getting both a dinner made and real vegetables happening - I'd be chowing down on carbs, carbs and more carbs in your shoes.
I am always helping out my grown kids also. That is what families do!
1. I paid my bills. Always frugal to not incur late fees.
2. Walked when I could.
3. Cleaned my house and my car myself.
4. Ate lunch out with my son, which is rare and not frugal but I got three meals out of my lunch.
5. It is 110 with heat index and I am trying really hard to not turn on oven or do anything that heats up the house! My air is working overtime!
That black kitty picture is adorable! She looks like you're reading her a story.
FFT, "Beef and Liberty" Edition. (Historical note: "Beef and Liberty" was the motto of several gentlemen's "Beef-Steak Clubs" in London and elsewhere in the late 18th and early 19th centuries.)
(1) The Bestest Neighbors left this morning for their annual fortnight on Cape Cod with Dr. BN's daughter, granddaughter, and great-grandchildren. I sent them off with a carefully packed old Omaha Steaks foam cooler of hamburger chubs and a massive sirloin steak for the Cape Codders, from this year's 1/4 steer. (I find these coolers around the 'hood more often than you'd think; I bring them home and scrub them down. And we've found over the years that a tightly packed foam cooler of frozen beef stays frozen all the way to Cape Cod.)
(2) I also handed over five chubs of frozen hamburger to the BNs for their own freezer. Total cost for all the beef (23.6 lbs), at my calculation of $2.63/lb. (based on the hanging weight price plus all the other costs), was $61.80. As I've noted in previous posts, I keep buying the 1/4 steer so that I can sell, barter, or give as gifts the beef I can't use myself, which is most of it. (NB: I didn't tell the Dr. this, but I'm saving the brisket for him for a Chanukah or Passover gift. 🙂 )
(3) I will barter much of the rest of the beef to my eventual executor (DH's last and best employee), in return for a massive trim of the hedge between my house and NDN1's. And I'm saving the major roasts as Xmas and birthday gifts for CF and her husband, who are the only folks I know who still do major roasts. (They're both fabulous cooks and do a lot of entertaining.)
(4) As for the "Liberty" part of "Beef and Liberty," I'm making yet another half-gallon of sun tea, and I'm about to hang a load of towels, t-shirts, and socks on my indoor drying racks (where I dry everything except sheets). Take that, National Grid!
(5) And on another perfect sunny day on this Labor Day weekend, I continue to watch the monarch butterflies use my garden as a stopover on their flight south--and to do everything in my limited power to make sure that they're the only Orange Monarchs we have. (See my #6 on yesterday's FFT.)
Our backyard fence is over run, in a good way, with autumn clematis and the monarchs are loving it. The scent is gorgeous and so are the butterflies.
1. I went to Franz Outlet bread store (thanks, Katy, for the push! I'd looked it up when we moved to Tigard lasy year but didn't know about the $1 shelf on 1st Saturdays.) Bought bagels for my daughter, sourdough for a friend, Hawaiian hamburger buns, English muffins, whole wheat bread, and blueberry bread for $6. Didn't need any more bread and didn't have room in the freezer, so I didn't spend another $4 to get a free loaf. It's frugal not to spend money on stuff you don't need.
2. Bought 4 kobe-style beef hamburger patties (16 oz.) that were close to expiry date for $5.75. Our daughter came over for a sewing lesson and stayed for dinner. $6.25 for 4 burgers ($1.56/each) and still have 4 more buns in the freezer for next time. Not bad!!
3. Spent an hour weeding the garden. Free watering courtesy of the recent rains; the soil was perfect for weeding: soft but not muddy.
4. Did laundry and used drying racks instead of dryer.
5. Found two remnants from my mask-making days that my daughter can use for her cosplay costume that I'm helping her sew. Sigh, probably have 20 totes of fabric. I plan to use them all up. I need to live to be 532!
1. I finally broke down and purchased a new TV -- a 55 inch smart TV -- from Walmart, on sale for $226 + tax = $248 total. Will spend my Monday holiday hooking it up. My small TV from the estate sale is not a smart one, and I could not get the $8 TV from Goodwill to pick up or scan any channels (I can still use it as a ginormous computer screen, however). I think the former set is 20 years old and the latter is circa 2010; the TV in the den is an old-style 1980s or 90s set that has a VHS player built in. So it was high time for an upgrade! This TV will work with WiFi. And my antenna. (But I'm still keeping the old-style TV so I can play my old video tapes.)
2. A friend, who is single but has some kind of friends and family deal, has offered me her password to share in some streaming services. I will see if it is legal to partake. I've already signed up for Kanopy, free via the public library.
3. Keeping my AC at 77 degrees, which (in addition to the ceiling fan) keeps my bedroom cool enough. Insulating that west window was the best thing I've ever done, in regards to summertime home improvement.
4. This past year I've used over-the-counter reading glasses instead of paying for more expensive prescription lenses. (I had some but the dog chewed them up... Naughty Snuggles!)
5. Used the public library when I needed to print out a document. Only 20 cents a page vs. buying a new printer and ink. My printer is no longer working and no longer supported and they don't make ink for it any more; it's even older than my TVs.
5.
5.
The last couple weeks have been a Buy Nothing bonanza.
I gave away two outdoor chair pads, eight canning jars/lids/rings, a 2-pc. towel set that I had received as a gift, and newspapers that someone requested for a project.
I received eight small drinking glasses (from a punch bowl set after the punch bowl itself broke), half-used bottle of Bitter Apple spray for our dog who has started to chew her wooden cubby, tiered spice rack for our winter Airbnb, partially-used chocolate soy milk for my morning coffee, and a spiral notebook for my numerous lists. No one else wanted the things I received so I'm especially pleased to take them.
This is my second day of taking Paxlovid to combat Covid, and it remains challenging. And there are three more days to go! I spoke to my niece, who is an internist, and she encouraged me to stay the course. That will be my best shot at killing off this virus. She admitted she couldn't hack it herself, but she is younger.
There is little frugality to be had in situations like this. I have bought adult diapers, adult Desitin, several bags of hard candy (to offset the bitter taste in my mouth) a family size bag of crackers -- and all were delivered. I haven't eaten much, so there is that.
Beth W.,
Glad to hear you got your medicine, and hope you are feeling better real fast.