Five Frugal Things -- What, Like it's Hard?!
1. I bought a box of $1.50 off-brand S.O.S. pads at Dollar Tree to finish scrubbing down my thrifted Wagner Ware chicken fryer pan, but cut them into four pieces to make them last longer.
What, like it's hard?!
I then listed the pan on eBay for $150. HERE's the listing.
2. I darned a couple more socks.
3. I lent our moving dolly to someone in our Buy Nothing group who asked to use one for a couple of days.
4. I need to go to the grocery store, but instead am going to prepare a series of increasingly odd meals.
5. My husband cancelled our Paramount Plus trial subscription before the price went up from the $1.99/month special that we were getting.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
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The Wagner Ware pan came out so great! I'm hoping you sell it quickly. BTW this reminds me of the time you shared you cut your soap pads into 4s. I've done it ever since and can say it somehow never occurred to me to do it before reading it here. I've learned so much from this blog.
A lot of hard work went into rejuvenating that pan, but what a nice profit it will be when it sells!
I went to the community center to walk, and that was my only outing today. I'm getting close to needing a grocery visit, but I'm not there yet. I, too, am making odd meals.
I thawed a piece of pecan pie for breakfast (I know, I know!) For lunch I baked a sweet potato and had some toast.
I finished and returned another book to the branch library and checked out two more.
Tomorrow it will get above freezing for the first time in a month. I plan to take the car to the car wash, where I will no doubt sit in line with a thousand other customers. Still, it's so dirty, and I'm sure it's very salty, too. It needs doing.
I found a penny, and I got a couple of free notepads from a charity in the mail. Little wins.
1. Brought home a bunch of free meyer lemons from my volunteer gig. I'll make Meyer lemon marmalade.
2. Curb picked a working lawnmower and listed it on fb marketplace. I talked to the owner, who even started it up for me, and it's in good working order. He said they had done the responsible thing and removed their grass (grass is a water guzzler here in CA).
3. Sold a 3 tiered metal basket thingy on FB marketplace. One of the several friends I have an arrangement with dropped this on my driveway. I get to keep whatever I make from selling their cast-offs. It doesn't get any easier than re-sale stuff showing up at my door!
4. Listed a couple items on ebay, and saved several as drafts to keep up my daily listing streak.
5. Continued to freeze batches of quinoa flakes and white rice flour before putting them in my 5 gallon food buckets. I buy 25 lbs at a time from Azure standard and it's much cheaper that way (just need the storage space). I use quinoa flakes in place of oats in granola, since I'm allergic to oats. I hate quinoa, but quinoa flakes in granola are delicious!
https://www.azurestandard.com/?a_aid=jWb0sVFU6M
You did an amazing job with that pan!
Work has been busy, so I haven’t done many actively frugal things (other than working!). I’m patting myself on the back for hand-washing sweaters and preparing meals planned to use up all the perishables before we visit relatives out of state for a few days. Got a fabulous price on a needed travel backpack on EBay. Finally, I used my twenty-year-old sewing machine to hem new-to-me sleeves that were too long. That machine has paid for itself many times over.
1. Discovered reverse back-up light is out on our car. Our nephew has his own auto body shop. Texted him info. He texted back part number. Going to get a $10 bulb for him to put in rather than going to the garage for a cost upwards of $30. Love our nephew (and his wife and kids, too!)
2. Still enjoying meals from church friends to allow me some "breathing space" from DH's broken hip and the extra responsibilities I've had to take on. Tonight we had General Tso's Chicken and Moo Shu Pork. Yummy! We don't get Chinese very often, so it was a real treat. There's enough left for lunch tomorrow.
3. Had a $1 credit (I'm on MA, that is my co-pay) at the chiropractor today. Chiropractor pulled my head out of my torso (felt like Whack-a-Mole) and fixed it so I can turn my head to the left. Don't have to go back until April (partly because I was in half-decent shape from my last visit, and partly because he is going to be out a few weeks for gallbladder surgery.)
4. Living the life of a cave dweller. Minimal lights on, heat turned back, layers on.
5. DH got a totally unexpected gift today from the parent of one of the students on my van. Her son is autistic (semi-verbal, can say a few words and short phrases now and then). She and I get to talk briefly when she puts him on the van to go to school. A huge step for him as he would previously not allow her to engage in any conversation with the driver. I had told her when school resumed in January that DH had broken his hip. She handed me a box this morning and told me it was for him. It was a gift box she had ordered and it contained a throw blanket, votive candle, mug, sleep mask, socks, another 1 or 2 items (can't remember what off the top of my head) and an Amazon gift card. He and I were both dumbfounded. It was a very nice, definitely unexpected, thoughtful surprise! The family is Pakistani and her husband is a doctor of internal medicine at the hospital. Very nice people. Glad I am getting the opportunity to get to know them and to learn about their culture.