Five More Tiny Frugal Things
by Katy on June 21, 2025 · 43 comments
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I added more thinly sliced onion to the leftover brine from my last batch of pickled red onions. So delicious when added as a topping to savory dishes.
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My husband and I stopped at Winco after our dim sum date and pretty much stuck to the list I’d been building since last week. I will never stop loving their bulk spice bins. Such a bargain, especially as their spices are always super fresh and flavorful!
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My daughter and I spent an hour or so reorganizing her bedroom, which was a fun group project. I let her choose the music and her room is now all cute and refreshed without the addition of a single new purchase. Clean and organized beats “look at all this stuff I bought” any day of the week.
She did need more hangers, which I was able to glean from her childhood bedroom. But if I didn’t have those on hand, I’d have asked for hangers thorough my Buy Nothing group.
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Portland is on day two of steady rain, which is a boon for all of our gardens.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 43 comments… read them below or add one }
I made pickled onion this week too, with 2 free red onions from my volunteer gig!
And I wish we had some of that rain…
1. Dh and I got up and made granola, choc chip cookie bars, and GF carrot muffins in order to use the oven while it’s cooler, and bake all of those at once.
2. I listed a pair of Duluth heirloom gardening short overalls on ebay. They just don’t suit me. I already have 4 watchers in 12 hours, so I think they’ll sell.
3. Selling a king size bed frame today that we need gone. So that feels good.
4. A new ice cream place opened about 8 minutes walk from our house. The sent out a coupon for buy one, get one free scoop. We walked over and enjoyed that. In the afternoon we went on a complimentary wine cave tour and each received a free tiny glass of delicious wine.
5. Scrounged some free wood for the building project we are driving to help our son with. I also directed him to Habitat Restore when he commented how expensive the pre-hung doors were at the big box store. He found one at Habitat, and also a cheap light fixture. He knows to check used, but he hasn’t made it a habit yet, and I hope this experience will remind him for next time he needs something.
Kara – #1 – I did the same this morning. Orange juice muffins, choc chip cookie bars and brownies. We are celebrating Father’s Day with my Dad tomorrow and DS has a grad party so I figured I would bake all the sweets for these events before 9a.
Getting rid of a king size bed is an amazing amount of room to free up in your house!
The bed frame sold ( I almost didn’t mention it before, I don’t like to count my chickens…). Also sold a curb picked changing table, and the Duluth short overalls sold. Yippee! This is my little side hustle, I don’t, and can’t, work even half time and so though I’ll never get rich on this, it does make me happy and brings in a bit of spending money.
Also I drafted a pattern from the shorts overalls before I packaged them. So I’ll make myself a new pair with fabric that was gifted. These shorts overalls currently sell for $80 and that’s money I don’t have to earn. I love to wear them when I’m volunteering in the community garden because I’m tall and shirts just do not cover enough when one is crouching down picking or planting.
Crap out of the house, money in!!!! I joke that “all my hobbies make money,” which is actually true.
1.Two of my daughters and my son-in-law are delivering an air conditioner to my youngest daughter’s apartment. It was given to them for free. They will install it for her.
2. I am dog sitting for my daughter’s dog while they are gone.
3. I found a pair of winter pajama’s in a free pile and a BBQ cookbook.
4. I’ve sold three more things on Ebay.
5. I’m reading a library book on my Kindle.
Setting up air conditioners for loved ones is about the kindest thing you can do.
However, I’m shivering in my house today and could use a pair of winter pajamas!
Katy, those of us in the South should charge you with mental cruelty! Shivering? Winter PJs? We should be so lucky! Here in Texas, the heat and humidity are so bad, I’ll have to take a cold shower just to dry off! (91 degrees F and a heat index of 100 to 104).
Fru-gal Lisa, it’s not just the South. Here in Central NY, we’re looking at highs in the 90s on Monday and Tuesday–and when I step off the train in NYC on Tuesday, the high there is predicted to be 101 (heat index not included). JASNA BFF and I may be a couple of hard-boiled Austenites, literally!
@A. Marie – you and JASNA BFF are NE Yankees, the heat won’t phase you. We’re in the same “heat dome” – better half and I worked outside until 10 am – mine was all weeding. There is nothing better than a good sweat (break included and staying hydrated).
We shared a quart of our organic June bearing, Midwest strawberries with the newest neighbors. They gave us a dozen eggs. Sharing some and had eggs, on-sale store bacon (thick cut it was not) and toast for lunch.
Kind of looking like the town where we used to live *might* be feeling the pinch of the in-progress drump recession/inflation. A LOT of marked down animal protein as of late.
Sounds like Minnesota about now!
1) Like Kara above, I baked several things while the oven was on. Also ran the dishwasher which creates heat and hung out three loads of laundry. All before 9a. I can get so much done in the early am. But after 4p??? Forget about it.
2) I’ve been trying to fix/reinvigorate things. Ridiculously pleased that I finally figured out how to replace the bulb in an IKEA lamp that hasn’t worked in 8 years. (Part of it is having the mental capacity I realize. Didn’t have it with the small kid years.) And I am a new big fan of Restore-A-Finish. Used it on two end tables in our rental unit with excellent results. Means we don’t have to buy or refinish tables this summer.
3) Bar Keepers Friend also got a workout on badly burned pan. Now it is a liquid? Or at least I can’t find it in the powder I remembered from the turn of the century (ha). And Fels Naptha got out a persistent stain spot on a white shirt. I bought the FN during COVID lockdown and have just started to make use of it in the use-it-or-redistribute-it movement I have undertaken in our house.
4) Reading a library book and an ebook from Libby. Trying to get back into reading and off my phone when I am looking for distraction. I found an adult summer reading challenge online through the National Book Foundation that looks fun. Our local library has only a kid focused challenge this year.
5) Cleaned all our deck furniture so that we can enjoy sitting outside for drinks/dinner. I am glad to be home and this just makes it even more enticing.
“Use it or redistribute it!”
I love this!!!!!
I have powdered Barkeeper’s Friend, your store must not stock it.
I ordered two cans of Barkeeper’s Friend on Amazon, and they sent SIX. (Now that’s what I call a bargain!) If you lived hereabouts, I’d gladly toss one over the fence to you,
The liquid is nowhere near as effective as the powder – check other stores! It’s usually under $3 and the package can be torn apart to recycle.
I’ve finally finished my “use, redistribute, or compost” project with all black tea, and am moving on to the green and herbal teas, which are perfect for iced tea. Also, pet stuff and then… cleaners. It’s good to have a backstock, and I’ve done the occasional purge, but at some point it’s necessary to be sure it’s really backstock and not something I’ll never use.
1. I know it’s bad, I hate to do it, but OMG I had to! Went to the big Walmart and got a ceiling fan that was labeled for “indoor OR OUTDOOR USE” for the covered patio. (Couldn’t risk getting a used one that would not work in the weather. And how do you tell if it’s OK for outdoors if you buy secondhand?)
2. After 15+ years of heavy use, my thrifted indoor bedroom ceiling fan’s light part is no longer working and not repairable. This is the mechanical part of it; I already repaired its broken light cover holders with Gorilla Glue.) After looking at Habitat ReStore for a replacement, sweating buckets and finding none, I went to the smaller Walmart to get one. Found a new Better Homes and Garden fan/light that didn’t cost an arm and a leg. Also found 88-cent dog bones for Snuggles (they’re usually well over a dollar or 2), a marked-down bakery loaf of sourdough for 44 cents (it’s usually $1), and what I thought was a huge discount on small Keurig display models. The shelf underneath ’em had a price marked, and some others were already taken. Looked like they’d sold already, so I put one in my basket. But as I approached the checkout lane, some old witch of an employee ran over and snatched the Keurig and growled “you can’t have that!” I told her it had a price marked on the shelf for those Keurig display models, so if it wasn’t for sale, why put the price there? Anyway, she was ugly and rude. (Note to self: do not shop at the small WM again.) But at least I got a cheap fan, cheap doggie bones and a cheap loaf of bread.
3. Finished my gifted pizza for breakfast.
4. Last night, enjoyed a free movie on over-the-air TV. I had never seen “Jaws” before!
5. Re-arranged my refrigerator so it’d have room for the watermelon. Will enjoy it this evening! (And save extra slices for breakfasts this week.)
Aww, Lisa, I hope you find a Keurig soon. If you don’t, I’ll send you mine. Someone gave it to me as a present and we never ever use it.
Re Jaws: Basically, as a kid, I WAS Alex Kintner. I spent my summers on a raft at the beach. Not to mention, the guy Quint was based on (Frank Mundus) literally lived two doors down.
It was really, really out of character for my parents to allow us kids (12, 10 (me), 8) to see a movie like that. But in the summer of 75, we did. My mom, who stayed home with my little brother, said that when we arrived home, our faces were gray. She lit into Dad. If it’s that scary, why didn’t you leave with the kids? Dad said, I wanted to see what happened! Still makes me laugh 50 years later.
I note that a large great white is heading towards me. https://www.ocearch.org/tracker/detail/contender
Maybe he’ll eat me this summer and my problems will be over.
Still, amazing directing on the movie, ha.
Fru-gal Lisa, and Rose,
Lol, I remember seeing Jaws when it came out, maybe at a drive-in? That part I don’t remember. I think all of us were kind of freaked out by it, and I remember NO ONE wanting to go in the ocean that summer. Lol. My 15 year old son has seen the trailers (since its 50th anniversary just happened), and he thinks the mechanical shark is “lame”. Of course, he’s grown up with CGI, etc.
In other news, a shark bit off the hand (or her fingers? Not sure of details) of a 9 year old girl off the shore of Hilton Head Island, S.C., about a mile away from where we were staying on vacation. The same day, we hit the beach, and I headed straight into the water….I noticed a group of brown pelicans in front of me, having a field day…then I noticed *no one else was in the water*. Uh oh. As I left the surf, a man told me “when the fish are jumping like that, it usually means there’s a shark nearby”. GULP. No one on “our” beach was injured, but I understand the girl was flown to Savannah and had her hand successfully reattached.
DOUBLE GULP.
Rose, you don’t *really* want to go that way, do you? So messy. Heh.
Nah, it looks pretty unpleasant. And given I’m six feet tall and 180 pounds, not sure how much Contender could really digest of me anyway.
OMG, I hope your neighbor didn’t get eaten by a shark! But I envy your seaside adventures, raft and all!
My church thrift store always has Keurig’s for sale.
Frugal Lisa – Our town’s buy nothing constantly has someone asking for or giving away a keurig. If you have a buy nothing maybe check that out. I gave our older one away a couple months ago.
Used the quilted top of an old mattress pad to sew covers for the foam mattresses in my dogs’ beds. Our old dog has a bad back and needs a thick, supportive bed. This did the trick and used up three spools of thread that each had a very small amount of thread left.
Laundered all the younger dog’s stuffed toys, which always renews her interest in them, so she’s been running around the house tossing her many times mended collection of squirrels and foxes into the air. Free entertainment!
Had a big cooking day yesterday: vegetarian cottage pie, spicy beans and rice with chicken, and banana muffins. These used up frozen bananas, a baggie of roast chicken, and many bits and bobs of frozen veggies.
I love pickled red onions. Then again, I love anything pickled. I do drink pickle brine, too.
Amazement! Our area finally got temps over 68! I know much of the rest of the US has been baking, but not us. It’s been gray and meh for weeks and weeks. I swear my tomatoes grew an inch today from the sun and warmth. 82 degrees.
Did not order takeout after I had a mini tantrum about the number of people packing my town. I wanted to go to the supermarket but every parking space was filled. Sigh. I wanted to make brats and German potato salad, but that ain’t happening. I’ll just scrabble something together from what we have.
@Rose – we had brats and red potato w/egg salad Saturday for dinner and it just hit the spot. Hope you can get your fix of both soon (I will eat German potato salad,
Better half is retired, already had purchased the brats from the butcher shop, and hit the non-Wally store in the next town over (aforementioned residents feeling the pinch since the store marked down hamburger which rarely happens). Two local owned grocery stores were sold by the children/grandchildren a while back. Kroger bought one , Shnucks isn’t much better (they now own both). No more gourmet red potato salad, but they occasionally have baked potato salad (yeah, I like mayo).
Ironically our now closed German restaurant served Lyonnaise potatoes – go figure.
1. Youngest son gave me enough meat he cooked on the grill to last me a month bc I don’t eat much meat.
2. I walked at his house. Visiting time with youngest is priceless!
3.I got to play with an adorable kitty who has shown up at his door. We think it may be a neighbor’s cat but not sure so we feed and play with it.
4. I took a nap when I came back home.
5. He swapped cars with me so it will save me $200 a month in insurance. Win for him bc he gets newer vehicle. Win for me bc I have less going out of my pocket. He earns much more than me bc I work part time.
#3 – I always err on the side of feeding just in case.
Katy,
I may have missed it but did your daughter get her license? I am rooting for her!!!
Here in Indiana we are at 91 with heat indices at 101-105 and lots of hot wind…real wind not the hot air coming from tRumps mouth, gawd what an asshat !
1. laundry done and dried on lines this morning, dried in record time because of the weather. The hot wind was like a blow dryer.
2, located and scrubbed the pressure canner, green beans will be picked soon.
3. so much rain…..not having to water anything is a savings.
4. because of my intense bargain hunting will provide the hot dogs and hamburgers for our family 4th of July get together. Happy to do so.
5. Hung all patriotic decor, have used it for years….bows are getting faded will save for a collage and replace with markdowns when the 4th is over with.
** frugal fail…somehow I let the last few flour tortillas mold…. It seemed to have happened so fast….
JC
My daughter is still driving under her learner’s permit, although she’s steadily getting better. She’s supposed to drive 100 hours before taking the test and it’s hard to get the hours in since she doesn’t live at home.
A heat advisory has been issued for northern Alaska because temperatures will reach 85 today. When we lived in a village at the very top of the state, where it snowed at least once every month of the year, it hit 85 and people refused to leave their houses and events were cancelled. I am with them, I hate this heat and the 24 hours of daylight.
Anyway, managed to do some frugal things despite hating the weather:
1. Harvested my rhubarb and made rhubarb pancake syrup and rhubarb twizzlers. The latter recipe came from a blogger from Anchorage and I made it for the first time last year. Nice treat midwinter.
2. For a neighbor’s birthday, who loves to cook but is too old to garden anymore, I filled a big thrifted pot with basil. I started it a month ago so she can started harvesting leaves now and will have plenty more produced before the season ends. Pot free, basil seeds from last year, soil refreshed and reused from other plants.
3. For another friend’s birthday, I did a hanging planter of cherry tomatoes. I made an identical one for myself and am already harvesting them. Planter free, seeds from someone who traded them for lettuce seeds, soil used before and refreshed.
4. Cut husband’s now thinning curls. I thought he’d escaped that effect of the chemo but apparently not. I stood behind him silently weeping as I was trimming/pulling hair out. They came back when he had cancer 40 some years ago, so I have hope they will return this time. I know, a silly concern on top of having the disease…
5. Library for books and to exchange some puzzles.
Lindsey, I hear you on your #4 about the husband’s hair, and I don’t think it’s silly at all. DH’s lovely full head of hair (only just tinged with grey to the very last) was a consolation to me through good times and bad.
And, unrelated but yet related, it was 40 years ago on 6/19 that DH and I moved into this house. The neighbor on the other side of NDN says that he still occasionally “sees” DH standing on our front steps.
That is insane weather for Alaska!
I heard of the Alaska heat advisory. I wonder what the climate deniers have to say about that. I’m thinking of you and your sweet husband.
Would you please share the rhubarb twizzlers recipe?
I’m not Lindsey but I read that blog too. Donna Freedman’s “Surviving and Thriving” blog, had a post titled “The rhubarb tattoo” in early June which refers to the process of making the rhubarb twizzlers.
I have to huge Frugal Things! First, my mother had a secretary desk purchased in 1950. In the 70s when veneer furniture became popular she and my dad carried it to the basement. They lost control of it and the back ended up cracked. (My dad got a deep cut, I remember them saying he almost cut an artery, and needed lots of stitches.) Anyway I have used that secretary in our home for my entire 33 yrs. of marriage. It was great to display my collection of plates and ginger jars but the drawers were completely empty and the thing was huge. I put it on Buy Nothing and this adorable young couple w. a newborn picked it up. I am so happy to be rid of it and I know my mother would be thrilled with the outcome. I have created a plate wall in it’s place and I love it!! So open and bright and now I am selling some of the other pieces!
Second, this is the huge one, our son lives in a pretty nice, very large apartment complex situated on a 9 hole golf course. 3 weeks ago his car was stolen from the parking lot. It was a 2016 Subaru that he bought in Oct. Really nice car for him. But because of the age of the car and he paid for it in cash (with a tiny bit of help) he did not get comprehensive insurance. No coverage for theft. 3 wks of uber and agonizing what to get, 2 nights ago police showed up at his door – car was found! In perfect condition. Frugal because we would have helped him buy a new one. What a huge blessing. My son said maybe someone just needed it to get to work.
Woah, what a great ending to your son’s car story! I suppose investing in a steering wheel lock (buy nothing?) might be worthwhile for him? what a heartrending few weeks for you all
as for the secretary, how lovely to be able to pass it on!
You need to gift your son a steering wheel lock!!!!!
1. Purchased a pound of orzo at Trader Joe’s for a mere 99 cents.
2. Had a friend over for lunch and she gave me a loaf of sourdough bread from a wonderful bakery.
3. Had a couple get-togethers at our house and stocked up on beverage options. We don’t own a pitcher so I used a large 64-ounce Mason jar for the lemonade. Served wine that I had received from a friend while helping her prep for selling her home.
4. At one of the get-togethers, neighbors gifted me with hand lotion, beautiful stationery and Prosecco.
5. For this week’s Adventure Club outing with my older and only sister, we visited the Textile Center. For those of you in the Twin Cities area, consider catching this amazing exhibit: https://textilecentermn.org/stitching-black-legacy/
I buy that orzo as well!
I had not heard of the Textile Center. What neat stuff! Thanks for the link.
Would you please share the rhubarb twizzlers recipe?
1. I am babysitting my son’s cat for three weeks. He has provided food and litter supplies. And snacks. She did cost me something, though. I moved my plants to the outdoor landing, because she likes to eat plants, and one of them fell two stories yesterday. Shattered the pot, and the plant too injured to rescue. I knew the plants were at risk, just didn’t want the cat to get sick.
2. Went to a garage sale yesterday and spent $5 on art supplies, hand soap, and a gift.
3. Ate my third and final helping of stir fry yesterday. Today I’ll make a chicken and mushroom stroganoff-like thing, but using Parmesan cheese instead of sour cream. Also using ramen instead of egg noodles.
4. Here in the heat dome, the high temperatures continue. I tried turning off the air last night, but had to turn it back on. Dreading my electric bill.
5. I’m continuing to re-read the Tightwad Gazette. Very nostalgic.