Five Frugal Things -- Using Buy Nothing to Get Rid of Stuff
1) I wanted a bookmark from The University of British Columbia's Anthropology Museum, so I grabbed a pamphlet. The paper was too flimsy for long term use, so I grabbed a thick postcard I already owned, glued the two papers together and cut it to shape.
There, now I have the postcard I wanted and it only cost a few minutes of my time. We spent $52 Canadian on museum entry, so I feel zero guilt for this frugal hack.
2) I started reading a library copy of Out on a Limb, which someone on the blog recommended.
It'll qualify for the "Author/Main Character with a Disability" square on my Powell's Books bingo card and get me that much closer to the full "blackout."
I know that Powell's intention with this game is to sell books, but I rationalize my I-only-read-library books with the knowledge that they they make a healthy profit from the books I sell to their used books department.
3) I panic purchased eight brand new bed pillows in April when readying my house for four house guests. We simply didn't have enough decent pillows and I didn't want to be accused of P.A.H.B. (Passive aggressive hostile bedding.) I take pride in providing comfortable accommodation for my frequent house guests and lousy pillows undo best intentions. Mind you, I have enough good pillows for a guest or two, but four guests put me over the edge.
Unfortunately, I ordered online and somehow didn't notice that they were "queen" size and absolutely enormous. Think "bolster" instead of "bed pillow." (You can hardly even cram them into standard pillowcases!) They'd be great to lean against while reading in bed, but your neck would suffer were you to sleep directly on them.
I get a crick in my neck just thinking about it!
Standard porch chair for size reference.
I set them aside once my guests returned home and got on with my life. Until yesterday while setting up my youngest's childhood bedroom for my sister. I had the epiphany that people in my Buy Nothing group might welcome essentially brand new pillows.
Bingo!
Three Buy Nothing neighbors wanted two apiece and four pillows have already been rehomed. I'm holding onto the last two as bolster pillows and happy to be putting six to use, instead of cluttering up my home. I just need to figure out better pillows for the next time I get an influx of guests.
4) We gifted all the beer brewing equipment that my husband had been storing in the basement. I hadn't realized how much there was, so I'm extra happy to clear it from the house!
This is where you learn that we have a really big basement, because I was 100% unaware of how much physical space these items were taking up!
Anyway, happy to use Buy Nothing to put this Stuff back into circulation and declutter another area of our home.
5) I sold two more items on eBay, both to the same buyer. She sent a message to let me know she was a blog reader, so I offered to refund the shipping on the second item.
These sales are from my $100 Goodwill Gift Card Challenge, so all profits will go to the Oregon Food Bank. I bought both these lightweight items at the Goodwill bins, which means I have less than a dollar into them.
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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I stopped at Panera using my sip club for ice tea. They made too many cinnamon crunch bagels so they offered me a free one. Yum yum
Made a return at Target and scanned the receipt for Fetch and Aisle rewards.
JASNA BFF and I will be seeing my JASNA Panera friend in the next city over for our Triple Birthday Celebration (a proud tradition now in its 15th year!). And JASNA Panera (who gives her job title as "pastry wrangler") and I will be having an exchange of goods, over and above the birthday prezzies: She'll bring me a bunch of day-old bread (anything except the tomato basil bread, which I don't care for), and I'll give her two quarts of refrigerator dills. All in the spirit of circulating the good things in life.
If you are a “I-only-read-library-books” person, then where do you get books to sell to Powell’s? Are you sourcing them from the bins? The bins price seems very expensive, so I wonder about strategies to make sure a book will be worthwhile.
I’m back from my trip and agree that there’s nothing like sleeping in your own bed after a vacation.
I have a whole lot of canning to do over the next month. So much ripe fruit! And tomatoes!
I get them from various free boxes.
Nothing to lose!
And the 80% that Powell's doesn't buy buy into my little free library.
1. I used my credit card points to buy a plane ticket to visit my daughter.
2. I had my car serviced at the dealership for "free". I get free maintenance for the first 25,000 miles. I took advantage of the free soda and snacks while i waited.
3. I used a BOGO coupon at a new coffee shop for drinks for me and my youngest.
4. I cleaned and cut up my elderly produce and made a dill dip. I'm eating this with meals until I can get to the grocery store.
5. I organized all the charging cords in my cupboard. I used items I had on hand to store them in. I also found two more tamagotchis that I will sell for my youngest. I have already sold all of my middle daughter's for her.
The inventory that just keeps selling in its time. So cool.
Canned 12 quarts of tomato sauce. Picked oregano to dry.
Working up the raised beds for the fall gardens. Will plant during the surgeon full moon in about 10days.
Cool bookmark craft to remember your anniversary trip.
Made 8 pints of spicy Italian prune chutney. I used my spicy cherry chutney recipe and swapped fruits. Had some on a chicken sandwich.
Silly auto correct. Sturgeon moon, not surgeon...urgh. Bah!
What do you plant in your fall garden? Planting garlic for next year is about the only sure bet in my neck-of-the-woods.
What are you going to plant during the Doctor's Moon - er, the Fish Moon, Blue Gate Farmgirl?
Do you usually plant by the moon? I figure I am lucky to get anything planted at all, trying to do it on the moon schedule is unlikely to happen during this era, however I am forever curious...
And where is your Spicy Cherry/Prune Chutney recipe when she is available for viewing? Asking for a friend (me) who is drowning in delicious plums.
I second the request for the chutney recipe. I will be drowning in Italian plums soon. (I think my farm is near blue gate farm but somehow my produce ripens slower?) The last time I attempted chutney, nobody liked it. 🙁
Those are some big pillows!
Today I defrosted my refrigerator. I moved my food into four coolers, each one supplied with freezer blocks. I let the fridge sit unplugged all day, because last time I did this I didn't go long enough and the ice crept back almost immediately. I hope that doesn't happen again. If it does, I may give up on this fridge.
My other worry is that the storms that are predicted tonight will knock the power out.
I thought, with my food all packed up, I would have to eat out, but I made pancakes for breakfast beforehand, and for lunch I had bean soup that I let thaw, along with corn muffins and an apple.
I wasn't able to fit my eggs into a cooler, so I set aside one to use in the muffins, and I hard-boiled the rest (only four). Egg salad tomorrow!
The water that came out of the fridge soaked four big towels so I'll be washing those tomorrow.
1. Used two $20 Target gift cards from the Red Cross to buy supplies for our local school.
2. Attended our financial advisor's annual picnic. Good food, music, camaraderie and free shredding (A. Marie, I thought of you!).
3. At the natural foods co-op, I spent 30 cents to fill my own jar of dried rosemary and $1.19 for my jar of black sesame seeds.
4. Found the misplaced backup key fob to my vehicle. Whew, that would have been expensive to replace.
5. Visited the Veterans Memorial Park of Blaine. For those in the Twin Cities, this is a gem:
https://www.blainemn.gov/facilities/facility/details/Veterans-Memorial-Park-of-Blaine-114
Nice you have more money going to the food bank. That gift card sure went a long way toward helping folks who need some assistance right now.
1. Granddaughter22 called and asked if would make her platta (thin Swedish pancakes) for lunch. By all means, come on over! We fed 3 of us with the one batch and we have enough leftover for DH and I for breakfast. I also sent about a dozen home with Granddaughter22 for her brother. Not bad for maybe $5 worth of ingredients.
2. My granddaughter and I also finished up the last of the brownies I baked the other day.
3. I walked the newspapers I share with my neighbor up to her house instead of driving. The less gas used, the better.
4. I'm gathering a few unwanted items from the house to take to the consignment store. Two pairs of shoes so far, one a pair of Danskos that are making me feel a little unsteady on my feet. It must be my age. They didn't feel that way 10 or more years ago when I got them.
5. I gathered up some rocks from my yard and washed them under the hose. I'll be painting them with fall leaf and flower colors and maybe add some positive words and messages on them. My goal is to leave one rock a day during the month of September on a trail or somewhere in the neighborhood for people to find, then keep or "rehide". This will get me out walking in addition to hopefully bringing people joy when they find a rock.
Gee, Christine, the 'rock thing' will be an unexpected but kind thing! I never thought about doing this...
I may be wacky here, but it seems those pillows are large enough to easily be cut in half, then fresh covers sewn on. That way, you could still use them for their original purpose.
I made supper (2 meals, actually) for a friend who just had surgery. But in the process, I also made two meals ahead for us. Win win, especially since it's really hot here -- and I only steamed up the kitchen once.
Your rock project sounds fun. A good way to make a walk more interesting.
"This is where you learn that we have a really big basement, because I was 100% unaware of how much physical space these items were taking up!"
I have a 1600 sq ft+ basement so the amount of space the brewing supplies occupied did not surprise me. Always brings George Carlin to the front of my mind - when items belong to you it is stuff, when it someone else it is .
https://thefrug.com/george-carlin-stuff/
How I miss him. But as they say, one man's trash is another man's treasure.
This is going to be a little roundabout, but I hope it'll make sense. When I was packing to leave Louisville, I found unopened boxes from my last move. Told the friend that was helping me to take anything they wanted & the rest could go to Goodwill.
My new bathroom only has 1 jury-rigged outlet (thanks, Mr Landlord) that is not placed close enough to the low-hanging mirror to do any good. Cousin N is going to rehang the mirror for me, but is not comfortable doing electrical work. I don't blame him. Decided that I'd look for a small mirror to go on my dresser & just use the curling iron in my room. Spotted one at Goodwill, only to watch someone knock it off the shelf and shatter it before I could snag it. Darn my luck.
Also needed a small fan for my bedroom as the AC vent doesn't work well in there. I was composing a request for Buy Nothing, when I noticed that a box still waiting to be unpacked had a note written on it. "I know you said to toss stuff or give it to GW, but I thought you might want these." Inside the box? My old, thrifted wood framed wall mirror from college; a small purple box fan; a stack of framed pictures & prints that my late Mom thought she'd accidentally thrown out when we last moved; my cd boom box (still works!); and a case of random jewelry. Jackpot!!!
I promptly ran out to get my CDs from the car (sold the stereo before moving) so I could have a dance party while trying to decide where to hang the wall art. I have enough Command strips for those, but need a heavier hanger for that mirror.
Still looking for the box with the toaster & baking equipment. I remember putting it in the Pod myself, so I know it's here somewhere...
Bathroom outlets have pretty strict rules, to have the auto-fuse shut off and such in case they get splashed. Shame on your landlord!
I had to get rid of carboys and other wine making equipment too. Offered it all for free and a woman who was starting an herbalist business took it all. I was delighted.
Today I cut my hair with a Flowbee. My husband picked one up a few years ago at a garage sale. When Covid started up I had to learn to cut my own hair with it at home. I'm still amazed those things actually work.
DS19 left for college, so I'm also decluttering (and dusting!) his room. I cleared ahead of time with him what he wanted to give away. He wants a larger bed, so I: put the dresser in the closet (common dorm move), and moved his desk out, among a bunch of other changes. I have the desk now listed for sale. I have given away already quite a few items on BN.
Frugal things:
1) Listed new items on eBay
2) Cashed the three reimbursement checks I received in the mail (529, parents, aunt) for purchases I made on their behalf.
3) Filled out & received in one day Via direct deposit a $75 incentive from my health care for DS19 going to the doctor. I actually thought it was $100 & offered to split it with him. He's in college, so I'll honor that & I ended up with $25/$50 for him.
4) Made meals out of the freezer & fridge for me & DS20. We skipped our weekly shopping trip, as I was in Boulder with DS19, and now DH is out of town. We are trying to get the trip to wait two weeks total, which should be fine.
5) Looking for a full sized bed on DH's employer's "for sale" site, which is just between employees, and tends to have very good prices.
I love Buy Nothing. The groups make it so easy to give away items, acquire free items, keep things out of the landfill, and foster community. This week I gave away ten egg cartons to a woman who collects them for the food shelf, and I received flexible ice packs, two books and a silicone dog dish.
Re: pillows
I can't offer advice on buying pillows but I have a great way to store the extras. I also bought some extra pillows for when I have a larger number than usual of house guests. When it was time to store them, I put 2 in each plastic bag and used my vacuum to suck the air out of the bags. Now all 4 of those pillows can go in the bottom drawer of the dresser in the spare bedroom. Easy to fluff when guests arrive and they don't get dusty.
Depending on the type of filling, you may be able to cut the pillows down to size and take out some filling. I have done this before it works great. The extra filling can be saved for another project. As the pillows end up in cases, you don’t even have to sew nicely.
Oh I didn't even think that these would be part of the food bank donation! That makes me extra happy!
1-Weekend breakfast that is much more elaborate than a weekday one (but anything is more elaborate than a banana in the car). Sat on the back porch in our pjs to enjoy a rare cool morning in this very long streak of 100 degree days. Part of breakfast was home fries from my own garden potatoes cooked in saved bacon grease--heaven!
2-Winco had some GM cereals on sale for $1.48 that corresponded with some Fetch and Ibotta deals. I got paid to buy 6 boxes of cereal! Three of them will go to the LFP.
3-Bought some Nature Valley snacks on deep sale at CVS and scored a rebate on the box for a free snack, payable via Venmo.
4-Bought some pet supplies that bumped my Fetch rewards up to almost a $25 gift card which i'll probably redeem for a gift card to the pet store because they always need food!
5-Lunch was at a family birthday party where we ate so much dinner was a toasted bagel. The birthday present was wrapped in vintage paper in a reused gift box with an estate sale bow. Had a great visit with family and extended family so got our socializing in for a while for only the cost of the gift for the birthday girl.