Five More Frugal Things -- Free Holiday Decor!
1. I stopped at a local Christmas tree lot and brought home an armload of free pine boughs to decorate my house for the season. We do have an artificial tree that we garbage picked maybe ten years ago, but there's just something about the smell of a freshly cut tree that can't be duplicated.
Plus it's fun to decorate the bouquets like they're little trees.
2. I returned all my library books and spent twenty minutes or so picking out new books for a fresh start. It's doubtful I'll read all of them, but I like to have choices.
3. I noticed a $2.99/month Black Friday deal for BritBox, so I texted it to my sister who has a subscription. She asked if I could arrange it for her, so I clicked into her Amazon Prime account and began to cancel her subscription. This prompted a 99¢/month offer, which she told me to accept. For comparison, she'd been paying $11.99 per month.
This deal will end in March, but I've added it to my calendar so I can cancel it before the price goes back up again. Who knows? Maybe they'll offer another cheap deal.
4. I finally took out my sewing supplies to mend a pillowcase that's constantly tearing. Does it look perfect? Nope! But the repair will keep it in circulation and no one's exactly examining my bedding to ensure that the seams are straight.
I kid you not about the magical disintegrating pillowcase:
5. I didn't mend a Lear Jet.
1. Husband brought tree boughs home from the Christmas tree farm for decorating the outdoor pot.
2. Received a loaf of sourdough bread from a community Thanksgiving service. Also enjoyed yummy pie afterward.
3. Gave away a Kong, powdered sugar, Christmas candle and a Pyrex lid on Buy Nothing. Still trying to unload a dog crate and Christmas stocking.
4. Took car in for service before we leave for Arizona at the end of December. Enjoyed snacks while waiting and received a complimentary car wash.
5. Got a deal on lemons so I froze the juice in an ice cube tray before transferring the cubes to a mason jar in the freezer. So handy to pop them into recipes. I also grated the skin for lemon zest, making sure to do it BEFORE juicing the lemons per Ecoteri's earlier excellent suggestion here.
I live near a tree lot and gather enough trimmings to make my own wreath every year. Maybe I’ll start gathering today!
If that was my pillowcase, I’d probably repurpose it as a storage bag by trimming off the disintegrating part and hemming it. I keep my sock and underwear drawer organized with cloth bags, and they are also useful as suitcase organizers and produce bags. I find that I have too many pillowcases because there are so many cute, orphaned pillowcases at the bins, and I keep adopting them. I’ve had to force myself to stop.
I’m having a frustrating morning with my Libby app because a server is down and it won’t let me borrow new books.
It's particularly damp here in the winter and the can of Barkeeper's Friend was trying to turn into one big lump. So today I cut the lid off the can, stirred it up with a knife and decanted it into a pint jar with plastic lid from a parmesan cheese container.
I use color catcher sheets in a lot of loads of laundry. Once they've done their job, they are great for dusting. Today I sewed some together to make homemade Swiffer-type dusters.
Am drying my thrifted and mended sweater indoors today, along with a bunch of reusable mopping pads and the fluffy neon-green head for the dustmop.
Used a big spoonful of yellow mustard from Dollar Tree and some dried herbs from Ollie's Outlet to elevate a pan of roasted chicken thighs. The mustard rubbed on the chicken makes a crust that seals in the juices. The chicken was bought on yellow-sticker discount.
Ruby, I'm another big fan of mustardy chicken. I use a somewhat simplified version from NYT Cooking of the recipe originated by the late novelist and food writer Laurie Colwin, who famously never served anything else at her dinner parties.
That's so smart to have a signature dish, so you don't have to reinvent the wheel.
She also had a jalapeño creamed spinach dish for taking to potluck meals. It's very smart to have a couple of easy dishes like that.
She was primarily a fiction writer, but wrote two books about cooking that are just wonderful.
I adore Laurie Colwin and have read her books many times. My dish was inspired by her mustard chicken.
I loved Laurie Colwin’s books/writing! I had not thought of her in years. Now I want to retrace and reread. Thanks for the reminder.
Ooh . . . thanks for the mustard tip!
1. Attended a child's birthday party yesterday and brought a homemade gift. They provided pizza and cake and arcade passes. We also took advantage of much needed hand sanitizer because, ya know, arcade + kids.
2. The hosts sent us home with a 12 pack of sodas. We don't drink much soda but we aren't one to then down free beverages! We declined the pizza due to allergies and it had been sitting out for a bit too long for us to take home on a 1.5 hour drive.
3. I finished both crocheted hats for my daughters. I had to improvise a bit but I think they turned out well for my first time!
4. Made a large container of hot cocoa mix, I like to add it to my coffee with a bit of creamer. It's too hard (expensive) to find a good dairy free mix so I'm very happy that this is only cocoa powder, powdered sugar, and a bit of salt!
5. It's chilly today so we're layering up and making some pumpkin muffins with ingredients on hand from our last trip to the store when we had rebates on pumpkin puree from Ibotta.
I'm super impressed that you made hats from scratch!
Lucky for me they're 4 and under so they're easy to please 😉
FFT, Beginning Holiday Prep Edition:
(1) Glad to see your big score on free evergreen trimmings, Katy. The tree vendors at my Regional Market have started actually charging for those. Meanwhile, I'll be keeping an eye out as usual for people's bottom-branch trimmings on the curb, which I will use for my annual bough on the front of the house.
(2) I made the Portuguese kale soup I mentioned in my comment on the previous post, using some of my "habeas corpus" turkey stock as well as the rest of the bagged kale I bought for my Thanksgiving salad. I've shared it with my hard-working snowplow guy (who was running on empty by the time he got to our street yesterday afternoon), as well as the Bestest Neighbors and NDN1.
(3) I've started on holiday cards (December sorta snuck up on me this year, since Thanksgiving was so late). I was pleased to find that I have more than enough cards in my stash to get me through this year.
(4) I'm using a few of these cards for the BNs and a few other special friends, creating a check-off list of herbs and spices that I will share with them in the new year, according to wants. The herbs are all my homegrowns; the spices are the ones I buy in bulk from our local Indian grocery.
(5) And I'm using some completely blank cards I found at a garage sale last year to create a special "Austenmas" card for JASNA BFF, JASNA Panera, and a few other special Janeite friends. (Inside me, there lurks a frustrated cartoonist.) It depicts a slightly-the-worse-for-wear JA approaching the end of her 250th birthday celebrations!
The guy at my tree lot was more than happy me me to take the boughs.
Shouldn't your cards be for "Michaelmas" for the Jane Austen fans?
"Austenmas" is a term coined by my JASNA Panera friend for JA's birthday, Dec. 16. (Not yet in general use, but it should be!)
"Michaelmas" is the Feast of St. Michael and All Angels, Sept. 29--which, as you're correctly recalling, is an important date in the JA/Regency calendar. It was a date for property to be rented or bought (Mr. Bingley in P&P moves into Netherfield on Michaelmas), servants to be hired, etc. So it wasn't by chance that I chose Sept. 29 of last year as the date for the interment of DH's ashes. He, too, was moving into a new place.
1. I went to the grocery store to get some eggs that were on sale. I was looking at the discounted meat. There was a 2lb Porterhouse steak that was marked $67.88. It was $35/lb. It was marked 50% off but even the discounted price was horrendous. That is the most expensive piece of beef I have ever seen in my lifetime. No, I did not buy it. We will be eating crockpot chicken next.
2. Mended a hole in a knit winter hat that was my mothers. I like to wear it as it is loose & does not hurt my ears.
3. The cats are eating dry kibble that husband found in the Dol Gen dumpster. It is an off name brand but they will eat it if I mix it w/ their usual kibble and/or some wet food.
4. I am going to make some smothered chicken in the crockpot and use some potatoes & carrots that need to be used. It have turned cold in north central Texas & hot food sounds good.
5. All of my leather boots have heels that are destroyed. They are at least 10 yrs old. I will take them to the shoe repair place but some shoes/boots have soles or heels that cannot be repaired. I paid $150 for the 2 pair of Rockports 10 years ago. I found some new leather boots at a discount store for $19.99 a pair. So I bought 2 pair. If my worn ones can be resurrected from their present condition then I can return the new ones.
What!!! Who's gonna be fixing your Lear jet, then?! hee hee
You? 😉
I'll look into it! hahaha
1. I sold an item on FB marketplace and rode my bike to meet the buyer.
2. I sewed requested cloth napkins for my grandchildren out of Christmas Snoopy fabric I already had.
3. I picked the caterpillars off my kale.
4. Gave a few things on Buy Nothing. Frugal to keep the BN community going!
5. Sewed a fabric bag for a Christmas gift. The item I put in the bag was given to me for free ( 2 cute flannel Garnet Hill pillowcases) and I'm gifting them to my mother. She will give me the fabric bag back!
I feel like once the sheets/pillow cases reach that soft/fuzzy phase, the tears and rips start reproducing in the night.
1) Returned a container to a friend (she sent me home with leftovers at the last party). I had added chocolates, as part of that "never return a dish empty" thing. Hilariously, she sent me home with more leftovers from the party we attended yesterday. She knows it's one of my favorite Persian dishes (salad olivieh) and one that DH doesn't make.
2) Both teens worked a ton over the past week. DS18 was home from college, and worked all of the days except for Thanksgiving, when the restaurant was closed. DS19 is working a double shift today, as they are short staffed. I noticed he packed an instant ramen & a book for the break he gets between shifts.
3) After a bunch of hiking over the past week or so (40 miles) in preparation for an upcoming hiking trip, I am taking today very easy. I washed the sheets of my now departed college boy (already miss him), vacuumed around a bit, roasted vegetables & chicken sausage to serve as the base of my lunches for the week, made a big batch of chicken noodle soup using a rotisserie chicken & the broth I made yesterday. Those dishes rescued some items that needed to be used up.
4) DH is making rice & I defrosted Korean beef from the freezer, for an easy dinner option.
5) We happily fed all of DS18's friends went they would collectively meet at our house in the evenings, when everyone got off of work. I had purchased a bunch of easy food options (chicken nuggets, pretzels, hummus, veggies, fruit, treats, etc) & this saved them from needing to go out. They are all working hard to pay for college, and we love to see them continue to get together. They watched movies while the olds (aka me + DH) were in bed.
I am still snowed in at my brother's house! I hope to leave tomorrow morning. The roads were plowed today, but I'll have to leave early to beat the next storm. I guess it's been frugal to freeload for a few days. They won't accept $$$ for room and board.
My SIL and I spent a few hours painting watercolors. Mine are pretty awful, but she swears with practice mine will get better, and perhaps someday I can sell them for pin money. She is practicing being an art teacher, planning to teach at a community center and a retirement home.
I did some laundry so I'll have clean clothes to wear home. Once I get home I will probably be able to get by with doing only one load this week.
My niece told me about online work she is doing for an AI company. I'm going to investigate it for myself. Might be a small income stream for me.
1. We were quoted $3000 for someone to come and tile our tiny downstairs shower. That price didn’t even include the tiles which we already bought! So, my husband did all the tiling and did a phenomenal job for the bargain price of $Lunch.
2. Our new house has a gas fireplace which was so drafty that it made us need…a fireplace. We decided to seal it up and replace it with an electric insert so we could still get vibes and a bit of heat. The quote? $5000! Um, NOPE. So we paid the guy $650 to seal it up and cap off the gas and I bought an electric log looking thing for $170. Now we have the vines and heat of a fireplace and can still afford to live.
**Why is everything so expensive?**
3. We have eliminated almost all holiday gift giving except for just my husband, son and I. My husband and I buy only what we will use - t shirts for him, a book, etc and several tubes of makeup, my usual skin cream, etc for me.
4. We have “adopted” two children in our community and our son will Be buying gifts for them. We have a budget of about $300 for him and we will give him $300 to split between the two kids. We thought it would be fun for him to pick out stuff for kids in need and we will be doing that shopping in person at local stores.
5. I have finally found the cheapest grocery store in our new town and I have adjusted our grocery budget accordingly. I go in at the first of the month and do a big stock up and the rest of the month just get fresh fruit, milk, bread, etc once a week. Not going to the store all the time has helped us not overspend and we are using more frozen veggies and fruit to cut the cost.
1. Went to our friend's house for dinner last night. She made turkey rice soup with some of her leftover turkey. She had rolls leftover too. It was delicious. She sent us home with a container of soup. I brought leftover cranberry goat cheese and crackers. I also made a cinnamon swirl cake. We ate well. My friend mentioned that her vacuum sealer had broken over the summer. I had gotten a brand new one in the box over the summer for $8 at a garage sale. Her husband picked it up today while he was out.
2. I did more decorating. Hubby helped. I have decorations that were my grandparents and I love using them. No new decorations here. I wrapped some presents. I have a tub of gift bags and tissue paper that I reuse. I garbage pick wrapping paper. They only thing I buy usually is the tape.
3. My dog had to suffer with me putting her cute sweater and antlers on. I took lots of pictures. She was rewarded with homemade treats.
4. Hubby watched football on CBS and Fox which we get for free with our antenna. It is really annoying that football is on several different subscriptions. Hubby refuses to pay for them all so he only watches some of the games.
5. We paid bills online saving stamps. We did our budget for December. We started working on our budget for 2026.
No Christmas tree anymore for us and I do miss the smell! The cut greens are a great idea.
1. Used some turkey broth from leftovers sent home with us plus chicken broth from our freezer and made veggie/potato/noodle soup for dinner. Picked up a sourdough baguette to go with it at our local corner market and am looking forward to several meals.
2. 9 year old granddaughter asked to come over today so I asked her to help put up our few Christmas decorations. She had fun and did a great job. I was pleased that she liked the vintage little village and Santa, etc. from my childhood.
3. Used one of the those endless small $s off coupons from CVS to pick up tissue paper for Christmas gift bags.
4. While at CVS I noticed DH's favorite brand of pistachios was on a good sale and picked up a bag for his stocking.
5. Only buying from family membrers' wish lists so all gifts will be appreciated.
I gave my daughter my old sewing machine and am regretting it as I am not familiar with the ones (plural) that I have accumulated. However I, too, have some repairs to do so must grit my teeth and pull a machine out and fix things up. (two are on my 26 things to do before 2026 list so there is actually a deadline).
We have fir trees on the property so I will be getting out to do some necessary and useful branch trimming - there is a sad pot at my front entrance that should be replaced with a large armful of greenery.
1. I went to the big smoke to find out if I had won $10,000 in a grocery store anniversary draw. I was not the grand winner, however all the runners up won $1,000. I ain't complaining, baby! Took my mom with me to the final draws and then took her out for lunch. Then stacked errands with her, getting her to the government offices where she could apply for her medical insurance card (free here but needs renewal every 5 years) and her handydart assessment. A day with her was revealing as her forgetfulness is obviously increased when she is out of her comfort zone. I came home exhausted!
2. A sad day on the farm as we had the vet out to put down one of my two old sheep. She is now in a deep hole a neighbour dug for me with his machine, and I am putting 100 shovelfuls in every day, as I say goodbye. I have some leads on a companion animal for my remaining sheep, including the possibility of a (free to me) companion llama (!!!) , who is sheep friendly. I am thinking hard about that option, as it is both appealing and disconcerting. I have met the llama and he is a standoffish kind of guy (and needs to have the burrs cut out of his fleece which has already been trimmed – however the trimmer left him with a mohawk and that is covered with burrs. I know I don't want those seeds in my pasture!
3. I got to yet another chiropractic appointment that was partially covered by my insurance. I am surprised that I am still covered but taking advantage while I wait for the money people to sort out the finances. AFAIK all the hoops have been jumped through so we shall see how long it takes them to catch up.
4. I volunteered to help with an afternoon film screening and panel discussion with my local Watershed working Group. When the day arrived, I found myself really dragging and didn't want to go, however I told myself that I could excuse-avoid events in the evening, but afternoons for important issues commanded an appearance, so I sucked it up and went. There were free cookies! I helped with hanging some posters and putting away chairs, and simply talking with folk as they arrived and at the end to ensure the event felt welcoming and inclusive. I am very very glad I went, as I learned a lot about how cutting down trees impacts hydrology – which leads to flooding and drought. A bit bleak, in fact, yet there were some bright points and certainly a lot of actions that I, as a 'little person', can take; more that I can take in solidarity or in community with other like minded people.
Those of us who are members of the two organizing groups gathered for pizza and conversation when all was cleaned up, so I am even more pleased with myself for showing up. I came home tired (PEOPLE) and fulfilled.
5. My new gardening friend has been enthusiastically visiting and digging in the beds. She's making progress in the greenhouse, and Grandbaby and I were out there with her on a rainy day, getting a hose in to water the very dry soil and letting him dig and get very dirty, while she and I started to get to know each other.
On another day, she dug up a bunch of kale baby volunteers from my raised beds and field and we have planted them into the newly moistened soil under the greenhouse cover. They are pretty sturdy transplants so I have hope that they will do well over the winter, and into the spring. My outside volunteers (of which there are a plethora ) and 2 and 3 year old survivors should all continue to provide me with kale all winter, but having some under cover means that even a harsh winter won't kill them all, and we likely will get new tender leaves earlier in the spring. No cost in trying as the volunteers are, well, volunteers!
I'm sorry, Ecoteri, about your sheep. Your goodbye sounds beautifully intentional.
1. Free lunch today after church services. It was potluck dinner Sunday. Sadly, I forgot and my charcuterie board is still in the fridge. I will see if I can offer it to the neighbor who is having the Yuletide block party.
2. Rolled three very, very full 96 gallon trash cans to the curb. It's yard waste collection week and two of those cans are designated for yard waste; they are full of the brush trimmings from 10 days ago. The regular trash can is 3/4 full of brush with several sacks of household garbage on top. Free haul off is the name of the game.
3. Some limbs too long for the trash cans found their way to another brush pile after dark. Guess they grew legs and walked over there, LOL.
4. My "tapestry" window treatment (a quilted bedspread hung up with curtain clips) is working very well to keep out the cold air. It hangs in front of the window that is located above my bed's headboard. I also cut a large corrugated cardboard box down to size and placed it in front of the window pane as insulation. (After painting the pane with buttermilk, to "frost" it so no one can see the cardboard from the outside.) (And, yes, the buttermilk "paint" is working well! But you gotta do 2 coats, just as the online tutorial said.) The cardboard is held in place by the miniblinds. No one can see either the cardboard or the blinds thanks to my tapestry. Which matches the bedspread on the bed.
5. Got out my 25-cent boxes of candy canes. I bought them on clearance last year. Have begun eating and sharing them. And guess what? They taste just as good as this year's $1.69 boxes of candy canes!
I have a couple this week that are good and bad.
1. We paid off my husband's truck which is good but a week later, he totaled it. That was scary but he was fine. The good part is that it was an 8 year old truck with 220,000 miles on it. The insurance paid out much more than he would have gotten for a trade in so he could buy another truck without a payment.
2. My mom died after a 6 year battle with Alzheimer's. Basically, I had already grieved her loss and it was bittersweet. We had a lovely small service and now, I have several nice bouquets of fresh flowers in the house when it's so gray and cold here.
3. We had a big generous crowd here for Thanksgiving. We made most of the food and everyone contributed their favorites. As a result, we have several nice bottles of wine, fresh rolls, and various baked goods added to our leftovers.
4. Did not buy anything on Black Friday.
5. I picked up an extra shift at work which made up for us being closed on Thanksgiving.
May your memories of your mother be a blessing, Amanda.
Thank you! I appreciate it.
@Amanda - I understand. The mom I once knew was gone a long time before she left this earth. Bittersweet is a good description. I don't know if your father survived her but that was the hardest part for me. He cared for her at home until the day she left this earth.