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I stopped by Portland’s newest library branch and was awestruck by not only the beauty of the design, but also all the resources available to patrons. Albina library now has multiple levels offering designated teen and kids’ rooms, as well as reservable large and small “community rooms,” free laptops to check out, 3D printers, community events, an outdoor space and of course thousands upon thousands of books to browse through.
My neighborhood library is undergoing a massive renovation, which is painful in the moment as I miss being able to grab random books instead of having to put everything on hold. (What can I say? I like the joy of a spontaneous discovery!) Should be back in service by next summer.
I’ve written before about “third spaces,” where people can exist outside of work or home without the expectation of commerce; and this new library offers abundant third spaciness! Seriously, check out their enclosed patio space.
This is very much upping my expections for my own library’s grand opening!
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What we consider appropriate to eat for specific meals is both cultural and a full-on construct. I participated in a foreign exchange program to Costa Rica when I was 15 and was shocked when I was served black beans and rice for breakfast. My young brain wanted cereal and nothing but cereal!
Breakfast is weird.
Pastry or donut? Sure. Croissant or biscuit? Sounds good. Slice of cake? What, are you crazy?!
Conversely, “breakfast for dinner” is an excellent meal, as eggs with toast and fruit so precisely hits the spot.
One thing you can do on your frugal journey is to let go of the idea that certain foods are only for certain times of day. Just this morning I ate up the last of some rice and beans, adding tomato, diced avocado and tortilla chip shrapnel. For breakfast. It was filling and delicious and now it won’t get pushed to the back of the fridge and wasted.
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I brought home a ponytail holder yesterday that I found on the ground outside Ikea. I tucked it into the silverwear caddy of my dishwasher, which gave it a thorough wash.
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My friend Lise brought over a half-dozen apples from her tree. I think I’ll make an apple crisp!
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Ambitious me returned my free library Rose City Comicon pass, which made it available for someone else to reserve. I simply have too much going on in my life this coming weekend to be able to attend. I checked back on the website and it was nabbed almost immediately, which makes me happy.
Five Great Frugal Things
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Those are great frugal things. What a beautiful library.
1. While I was getting my oil changed I took advantage of the dealerships offer of soda and chips. I relaxed and watched HGTV on their huge TV in their lounge while I waited.
2. I stopped into a locally owned huge farm market which was a few miles from the dealership. I picked up some bulk items. A pound of quinoa, a pound of split peas and a few pepitas. I reused the plastic containers from past bulk purchases so no additional plastic used. I also bought one plumcot and a couple sweet potatoes which were 87 cents a pound.
3. I clipped my dogs nails which is an easy savings of at least $10. Luckily she’s very cooperative.
4. I just finished book #5 of the Dublin Murder Squad by Tana French and reserved the next. I’m just starting the book Heartwood by Amity Gaige. These are both library Kindle books.
5. I bought dog food on sale at the pet store. I went into the store instead of ordering online since they will allow me to use both a coupon and a reward on one item which you can’t do online. This saved me $28.
Well done for reusing plastic containers!
Love Tana French, she’s a great writer. My favourite is the 1st book in the series, Faithful Place
I’ve been using third space more than ever. I’m caring for my mom and my husband and had to quit working in May. I’m spending more time at the library, in parks, and I’ve found a wonderful community center five minutes from my house. It has a free gym and sewing rooms with donated materials and a room where I can just sit and work. I usually take a flavored seltzer water with me and the whole trip feels like a treat. I’ve met several people and I feel less isolated. I’ve lived in mt current city for 3 years, but I don’t know many people since I was caring for my father before I was caring for my mom and husband.
1.). I took my Mom to water aerobics yesterday. It costs $2.25 person.
2.) I made sun tea from tea bags I picked up in a hotel.
3.) I spent an hour in the library reading the free newspaper and working on paperwork. I found a new local place to walk after reading an article.
4.). Day before yesterday I walked to see my mom at her assisted living facility. Great exercise and no cost.
5.) I ate leftover fajitas. We have to travel for my husband’s treatment and we purchased fajitas on Monday night. I always travel with containers and a cooler.
What a wonderful list. Wish we were neighbors! I’d ask to join you for all of these!
Love the outdoor courtyard space in that library, wish our library had that!
1. Recent favourite library read: The hidden life of trees (Peter Wohlleben)
2. The weather has been windy but mostly dry so line drying clothes has literally been a breeze lately!
3. I sold a book on FB marketplace.
4. Whenever a stick on return label is automatically sent in the box with an online purchase I cut off the non printed part of it and use that to label jars etc. Just used one such cutoff today to put a label on a container with washing powder (I decided to keep some washing powder in a former protein powder jar near the washing machine as the actual big box of washing powder is too bulky and takes up too much space in that area).
5. I’m having leftover vegetable soup from yesterday’s dinner for lunch today!
That library space looks beautiful!
1) Met a friend for a lunch time hike – free exercise!
2) Inadvertently frugal – skipped dinner, because jet lag is making me tired really early & food doesn’t appeal at the end of the day.
3) Ran out of oat milk this morning & subbed in DS18’s Fairlife chocolate protein milk that he left behind. It’s WAY sweeter than my normal oat milk latte, but it’s also a lot better than plain black coffee & I have a million meetings this morning. It’s okay in a pinch.
4) Coached DS19 on two calls: a) setting up a doctor’s appointment/finding a doctor/switching health insurance and b) dealing with a banking issue. He’s your standard teen boy and doesn’t exactly know what to say or how to say it & doesn’t always know all of the answers, so he puts them off. I’m teaching him how to “life” on his own, which will be helpful in the future for him.
5) Received my $1500 HSA match from my new employer.
Just hopping on to say I agree the Albina library remodel is incredible! My “home” library (Hollywood) is closed for renovations too, although not as extensive as a Belmont, so now Albina is closest to me which I am not sad about at all. 🙂
Such a lovely library, and so many amenities! We have a good library, but it’s pretty standard.
1. I forgot to mention that during the long walk looking for my car yesterday I went by the little free pantry and picked up a package of beef jerky, a small loaf of bread, and funnel cake mix, which I think I can use for pancakes.
2. I put the newly-cleaned shoelaces in my newly-cleaned thrifted shoes, and I have received the toe inserts, which I will apply today. A new pair of shoes is on the horizon!
3. Made popcorn for dinner last night. Not all that nutritious, but great fiber, which I always need.
4. Finished a jar of honey roasted peanuts but kept the shards at the bottom to sprinkle on yogurt.
5. Kept working on my free jigsaw puzzle. I’m going forward at the great clip of about five pieces a day.
Wow, what a fabulous library space. The city we lived in prior to this one had an amazing library too. This one has lovely librarians who do the best they can and a good county system for moving books around but the local library was built in about 1950 and mostly just hold a small number of books plus a children’s section. I am shocked that there are residents here who are actively against a bond issue to build a new modern library. Hopefully they lose. Sigh.
1. A son & DIL arrived last night for a visit and per usual I made a reheatable dinner in advance to account for unpredictable arrival time. This time it was chili rather than soup.
2. As always we cleaned the house, made up the guest room, stocked up on healthy food, etc. by ourselves.
3. Our entertainment plans while they are here include watching movies at home, going to an art/craft reuse thrift store, preparing and hosting a birthday dinner at home, and meeting other son and DIL for lunch at a local brewery so they can all visit without the little grandgirls around.
4. More peace of mind that frugal – I am updating my final wishes/healthcare POA and using this visit to discuss what I would want with the older son so what is written is clear. I’ll chat with the local son separately. Kaiser’s form asks some big and tough questions about your wishes for treatment which is good.
5. I am not destroying the CDC, once the world’s best public health agency, and replacing it with fringe pseudoscience that will cost lives and increased suffering.
Your #4 is a wonderful gift to your kids!
Thanks. My parents set a great example with making everything known and easy for us.
Loud cheers for both your #4 and your #5. I’m a longtime advocate of getting final wishes and final legal paperwork (health care proxy, durable POA, will, etc.) in place well before they’re needed. And as for the #5, I can only say that putting someone with a worm in his brain in charge of the entire Dept. of HHS was not a good idea.
I once got a cd from a discount rack that included a song “cake for breakfast”—it’s a fun song. Here are the lyrics if you’d like to read them. (Also, eating cake is not too different from eating pancakes, sans icing.) https://music.fandom.com/wiki/Lyrics:Cake_For_Breakfast by Greg Lee
1. I was supposed to meet a friend yesterday evening and he cancelled. Instead of making other plans, I parked it on the couch. It was incredible.
2. My new favorite hairtie is one DH found snorkeling in the ocean – he brought it back to land to throw out. I said that anything that has spent that long in salt water is likely cleaner than anything on land, gave it a good rinse, and put it to work. It’s one of the THICK ones that last forever. And it’s hot pink!
3. Dinner last night was freezer dumplings – I got these from a local restaurant at a fraction of the grocery store cost. They cooked up great and gave us restaurant flavor.
4. Hosting friends tonight and then another crew on Saturday. We love having people over, especially our pals with young families, because it’s lower stress and gets them out of their houses too. We’ll order pizza, play with chalk, and have a lovely time.
5. Did two workouts off YouTube yesterday for free. I did not have the energy to make it to the gym but wanted the movement. I love adding in other workouts to my usual program to keep it interesting – at no cost.
Funny enough, I’m having a plant-based BLT sandwich for breakfast as I’m reading your post.
1. Picked up another free gallon of paint at our county’s ReUse Room. This one is for ceilings and looks to be half full.
2. Made a batch of granola and stored it in the extra large mason jar that I got for $1 at a garage sale.
3. Made pesto from garden basil and froze in an ice cube tray (from Buy Nothing) before moving the cubes to a mason jar in the freezer.
4. Brought home coffee from an event and added it to my large mason jar of leftover coffee in the refrigerator. I dilute it with water and whole milk.
5. Husband received a $25 reward card from our Medicare advantage plan for having an annual physical. Used it for groceries. I will get my reward in September when I go in for my physical on my birthday.
People can be very inflexible when it comes to breakfast! Me? I had chicken for breakfast a few days ago.
Yesterday, I took my kid to the dentist in the opposite corner of town. Instead of waiting in the waiting room, I walked through the neighborhood to the nearest Fred Meyer. It’s interesting to see how the other neighborhoods live! It was a leafy, pleasant neighborhood with sidewalks and vintage houses and lots of free libraries. It even had a “little free doggy library”. (I think there were dog treats inside, not puppies.) There were a few free piles, but nothing noteworthy. Just as I started feeling neighborhood envy, I noticed that someone had put their cardboard out for recycling and among the boxes, was the flattened box for an AK1 BB gun (designed to look like an AK-47). Ew. OK, so no neighborhood is perfect.
The Fred Meyer was a disappointment because there were no worthwhile clearance items. (Sad face.) The funniest clearance item was in the frozen section. It looked like a bag of freezer-burned bait and was called “Seafood Medley”. Good luck selling that!
WOW, I just can’t get over the Albina library renovation! So beautiful!! So third space-y! I enjoy hearing you post about your library successes and woes. I’ve gotten some good book recommendations from your blog (currently digging thru that “Poorcraft” graphic novel!). And as of January, my neighborhood library is also undergoing renovation right now – it is breaking my heart because I truly miss it so much! So I feel your pain on that for sure. But, I’m grateful there are other libraries I can go to, even if they are a good bit further away. Love our public library system!!
This post reminded me of a delightful book of verse we read our children when they were young entitled “Soup for Breakfast” https://www.calefbrown.com/soup-for-breakfast
1. Our family attended a concert (Weird Al!) last night at our local university music center. We sat on the lawn, with blankets and chairs from home, and brought our own food. My mom joined us and treated the adults to a bottle of wine. Home by 10 pm since it’s 5 mins from our house.
2. Love the library love! Ours has study pods that I’ve used when I’m tired of remote working from home. A great alternative to a coffee shop, etc.
3. My garden has had a down year — there was a widespread tomato fungus in our region— BUT our fruit trees are pumping out fruit and I am grateful. Apples for days and the figs will ripen soon! We planted 4 apple trees when we bought our home 11 years ago and the fig tree is the last of 3 that remain from the original owners fig orchard(? Not sure if that’s the right word for multiple fig trees!). The remaining fig tree is at least 50 years old.
4. Frugal fail – I just bought and iced coffee to help wake me up after last nights concert!
For years I thought I didn’t like breakfast foods but come to find out, I just don’t like breakfast foods at breakfast time! My metabolism starts off slow in the mornings and a heavy breakfast feels overwhelming. But breakfast for dinner? Winner winner! Eggs, bacon, toast, pancakes, toast, you name it, I love it.
I solved my own breakfast dilemma a few years ago by discovering and greatly enhancing Frugalwoods’ Pumpkin Oatmeal Bars. I throw in nuts, dried fruit, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, and whatever is lying around to make 2 9×13 pans of a concoction which I’m sure has every nutrient needed to sustain life. Not too heavy and doesn’t spike my blood sugar. I freeze it in parts, and a batch lasts me about 3 weeks.
Lovely library!
Ours is from right after the Cival War and is the oldest, continuously used library west of the Mississippi. During the Great Depression, there was no money for staff, so volunteers stepped up to keep it operating. Next to it, there is a butterfly garden, and we enjoyed it after church Sunday. Ran into a friend from high school and had a nice chat.
Went to a benefit spaghetti dinner. Great to see such community turn out. Sad that we’re fundraising to help pay medical bills for a young family that their insurance did not cover. Met up with my folks there and afterwards took DS to play in the park.
Took winter clothes out of storage for DS. It’s chilly in the morning and he needed a few more jeans. Won’t need any long sleeve shirts or a winter coat. A co-worker’s wife had sent us a big bag of too small, boy’s clothes. I washed, sorted, and stored them. They have been sooooo handy! Still a couple more seasons’ worth. I will need to buy a couple more pair of jeans, but it’s not a pressing issue.
Cooking from scratch and trying to use up the last of the meat in the freezer. Making room and defrosting in anticipation of a whole hog and half beef, plus 10 or so chickens.
Washed the kitchen window and put the screen in to take advantage of the moderate temps. Eating from the garden.
Enjoying sunsets with my family.