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My husband and I drove our chandeliers to the Habitat Restore and took a stroll through the store. I paid $10.45 for the above vintage lighting globe, which I promptly took to locally owned Lounge Lizard and sold for $40.
Habitat gets to sell a donated item, I resell it to earn a few dollars and then Lounge Lizard gets to sell it at its full retail value. We all get a piece of the pie.
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The Habitat ReStore had a table of “FREE STUFF!” next to the entrance. I brought home four of these tiny glass vases, as they’re the perfect configuration for propagating avocado pits. I have one exactly like this, which is how I have my own thriving avocado plant.
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Our neighbors invited us over for dinner to thank us for caring for their house and garden whenever they leave town. I brought a homemade blackberry and fig crumble, along with a pint of Häagen Dazs vanilla ice cream, which was free with a Fred Meyer coupon. Especially frugal as the berries and figs were free and the oatmeal was from Winco’s bulk bins.
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I found a quarter on the ground next to the Safeway self checkout. I’ll add it to my 2025 Found Change Challenge jar, which is looking rather anemic as so few people pay with cash these days.
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My husband needed new summer shorts and didn’t like what they had at the Columbia Sportwear outlet store, so he found a brand (Kühl) and style he liked and ordered three pairs off of eBay. They’re all perfect and he’s very satisfied with paying $25-$27 per pair instead of the $80 they’d cost had he ordered directly from the company. I’m happy that his purchases didn’t prompt the manufacture of brand new items.
Five More Frugal Things
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Happy Tuesday & thanks for another FF post!
1. sorting through stuff-ola our girls in the family are donating… some of the great condition clothing will go to the free table at a local long-term care home for staff/residents; appropriate sizes will go to some family down south. Happy to play a role in this sharing economy!
2. babying three soap slivers to get them finally thin enough to meld together. what’s with Dove soap these days that it won’t stick to itself as well as before!
3. have a one TBS of detergent load of laundry in the washer. includes handkerchiefs — so much softer on the nose, better for the environment.
4. cleaning out an end table and found MANY lip balms. ha, no need to buy more.
5. working to eat up the pantry, cooked up a couple of freezer foods yesterday. feels good not to waste (something I need to get better at not doing)
Cool globe!
1. I walked for thirty minutes before work.
2. I packed my lunch and breakfast.
3. I used a fan last night with the windows cracked. Electricity is expensive here.
4. I washed my other court jacket, gently, in the bathtub and have hung it out to dry.
5. I stayed in my own lane and minded my own business.
I love your #5 and wish more people would do the same 😉
1. I found a quart size mason jar in a free pile. A good scrub and a run through the dishwasher and it sparkles.
2. Sourced the 4th 2-drawer filing cabinet that my son wanted. All free.
3. Sewed a denim pencil pouch for my grandson who is starting school. Fabric all free.
4. Altered a pair of JJill yoga type pants to fit me (found in free pile). Mended a free dress that I’ve listed on buy nothing. The underslip was longer than the lace overlay and so was useless to anyone who doesn’t sew. Now it’s perfect again and ready for another person.
Took me about 10 minutes and saved the dress from landfill.
5. My loofah plant finally has fruit. I’m hoping to become self sufficient in sponges!
I love your #5.
As a fellow blackberry forager, I love seeing everything you make with them!
1) I’m canning blackberry jam and hot pepper jelly today.
2)I have sour cream, erm, souring on the counter. It’s easy to make your own: 1/4 cup cultured sour cream with no additives (like Daisy brand). Put in a qt. jar and top off with cream or a half cream/half milk. Shake and put in a bowl of the hottest tap water you have. Once the water cools, remove it from the bowl and let it sit out 24 hours to ferment, then refrigerate. You can freeze 1/4 cup to use as a starter in your next batch!
3) Our cat likes to play with bookmarks, so I made a few from scrap cardboard and ribbon so she quit destroying my favorites. Free toys from the recycle bin!
4) I made a jar of sauerkraut in my thrifted Ball fermenting jar. It will be ready in two weeks!
5) I didn’t go anywhere, other than work, thus I didn’t spend money or use up any unnecessary fossil fuels.
Thanks for your sour cream instructions. I’m guessing it costs about the same or more but would be so nice not to have to buy the plastic tubs.
I have a glut of figs from someone who dislikes figs, but who has a fig tree. Usually, I make jam, but I haven’t finished last year’s jam. There are many other things I’ve made with figs, but I haven’t made a crumble yet. Thanks for the idea. I might wait until the weather cools down!
1. Found a quarter.
2. Ate from the freezer and the in-law mystery bag.
3. Needed a dish draining mat. Said to myself, “Maybe there’s one in a free pile somewhere.” Went for a stroll and found one in a free pile. I love it when that happens!
4. Got a free Big Gulp from my 7-11 app.
5. Fixed the toilet so it’ll stop running. This will help with the water bill!
Li, I have a fig tree and several food allergies. I wanted a fig crisp reminiscent of fig newtons, which I can’t have anymore. I use brown sugar in the filling and a generous oat topping and it does scratch that itch. I also love making jam bars. Last idea … I will make fig butter along with jam. The fig butter goes in the crockpot, uses less sugar, and is really good. I use my immersion blender to get it smooth. Enjoy those figs!
Jam bars sound interesting!
What a cool globe, and Lounge Lizard looks like a really cool store! I want to visit it next time I visit my college bestie in Portland!
1. Finished the final of about 6 loads of laundry yesterday and placed our drying rack outside in the morning sun. I think the clothes were dry in a half hour!
2. Made Thai spring rolls for dinner with Thai fish cakes from H Mart. What a tasty combo!
3. Puttered my way to almost 5k mid day by doing housework. Then took a decompresing walk with my hubby after he finished work (consultant working from home). He needs them. Plus we got some free vitamin D and got to catch up with each other away from teenage ears! Lol
4. Part of the puttering was going through my closet and one of the teens’, gathering clothing we no longer like or wear for the 1st clothing swap in our neighborhood (since we moved to this lil mountain neighborhood 2 years ago) on Saturday. It feels good to have things to share!
5. All that editing prompted me to count how much is left in my minimalist wardrobe. I have 125 pieces left. Seemed like a lot for me. I aim to keep to 9 items or less in a category. There’s no other reason than 9 is my favorite number lol. I’m over this number in dresses. I have bought maybe 5 new to me ones in the past year. Shopping at local Arc thrift stores and a fave charity shop means at most I paid $5 each. My newest one in spring felt like a splurge on not half price Saturday at 12.99! This means anything that may come home with me from the swap, I need to love more than the purple and teal things I already own. Wearing only these colors plus black and silver means everything matches!
FMFT, More Decluttering and JASNA BFF’s Visit Edition:
(1) I dropped off my five boxes and one bag of donations for the local human-being-friendly Catholic church’s garage sale this morning at the church’s garage (appropriately enough). The sale starts on 8/21 and they’ll accept donations till 8/20, so maybe I can scour up another box or two of donations before then.
(2) I hit every Little Free Library in the area on my way to and from the dropoff, and found four more kids’ books for JASNA BFF’s grandchildren. One of these is a kids’ starter version of a few Sherlock Holmes tales. BFF is a Holmes fan, so I think she’ll be delighted.
(3) BFF will be arriving on Thursday afternoon for the annual Triple Birthday Celebration visit (a proud tradition now in its 14th year). Our JASNA Panera friend, the third Lady of August, will come over from her city for the actual TBC on Saturday. We’ll have lunch out (Thai and Indian are the leading contenders at present) and then come back here for large gooey cupcakes (which BFF and I will obtain from Wegmans), prezzies, and JASNA and other gossip–all under the coolth of my central AC. (No relief from the current heat wave is predicted for Saturday.)
(4) JASNA Panera will be bringing as many day-old Panera goodies as she can cram into her cooler bag, and I’ll be refilling it with refrigerator dills.
(5) And I haven’t used my own paranoia as an excuse for a federal takeover of my nation’s capital.