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The neighbors down the block had their furnace go out, so a couple of us lent them our space heaters. Mine was left behind by a Japanese exchange teacher who lived with us in 2005, although it still works great. I also brought over a small baggie of leftover Hi-Chew Halloween candy for her kids.
Our block is small, (just four houses) and whether it’s last minute dinner ingredients, watering plants while for vacationers or the loan of space heaters; we’ve created a tight community.
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My husband and I went for a walk and brought home a mostly okay fallen apple, that once cut up served as the perfect afternoon snack.
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My Libby audiobook copy of Emily Henry’s Funny Story finally became available to borrow again. I’d already made my way through seven hours, five minutes and fifty-three seconds of the book before it automatically returned. (NOOO, WHY?!) It had hundreds, (thousands?) of holds, so it took a few months to swing back around again. Now I can listen to the four hours, seventeen minutes and twelve seconds left of the story. Luckily the Libby app bookmarks your spot, so I can jump right back in!
Hopefully I remember the character names and specific plot points.
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I’ve held off on doing a Big Grocery Shop, as I want to exercise my creative muscle using what we have on hand. The fridge is getting a bit empty, but I somehow keep finding what I need to put a meal together. Yesterday I made chicken soup from a frozen picked over Costco chicken as well as a big batch of refried beans from scratch.
I was initially resistant to buying an Instant Pot, but my husband had some birthday money and really wanted it. I now love how quickly I can make my own broth or cook dry beans! I never buy canned beans anymore, which is a huge savings. I use mine at least three times per week.
I’ll hit up Winco early next week and have a in-process shopping list that I add to on a daily basis. It’s simple things like oatmeal, carrots, potatoes, tea and cooking oil. I’m in the current mindset to have the basics and not much else.
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I didn’t buy a vulgar gold plated apartment in the sky.
{ 48 comments… read them below or add one }
I love the posts, keep them up, please! It makes me also stretch my frugality.
1. Went to a free talk about native plants put on by some fellow master gardeners. Came home with 2 cookies for my husband, 6 free native plants, and some native wildflower seeds. I rode my bike to the event.
2. Ate my homemade chutney with cheese, carrot salad, chips (Costco) and an apple. I ate outside in the sun and left the door open to warm the house.
3. Made soup last night with an assortment of cheap veggies and the last tiny bit of chicken and homemade chicken broth. That made 2 chicken breasts and 4 chicken legs cover 10 meals.
4. Rode my bike to library to pick up yet more books to read to my grandson and to drop off return for my daughter.
5. FYI, Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library provides one free book a month from birth to age 5 to children in certain areas. You can check the website if your area is included. My grandchildren received theirs today. https://imaginationlibrary.com/
1. Hubby and I went to my cousin’s wedding last night. We both took ½ days as we weren’t in the wedding. We showed up for the ceremony and the reception. The cocktail hour had so much food that we weren’t really hungry during the sit down dinner. We boxed ours up to go and had it for lunch today. So much food waste at events like these. They gave out flip flops to everyone for dancing. I now don’t need to buy any for nextsummer as Hubby doesn’t like flip flops so he grabbed a black pair in my size. I got a white pair. The favor was a nice olive oil. I like food favors.
2. I cooked my $4 pumpkin from Aldi. It is cooling down as I type. I will run it through the food processor and freeze it to use this winter. As soon as the pumpkin was done I put in muffins. I shut the oven off five minutes early and let them stay in the oven. They came out perfect.
3. My dad is having his knee replaced this week. I have a crockpot of ham and lentil soup going since it is his favorite. The ham bone was frozen. All of the fatty parts went into the dog’s food.
4. I made a double batch of dog food. It lasts my dog a week. I grind up our egg shells to add calcium instead of buying a powder. It is vet approved. This week’s menu is chicken livers, carrots, sweet potatoes, peas, lentils with rice. She used to have digestive issues when she was on store bought dog food. Since I started making it and cut out all kibble she has been fine.
5. I pulled most of the tomato plants, dug up the potatoes, pulled the string beans and the last of the cucumbers. I picked all the basil and parsley. We are supposed to get a cold front this week.
Love the tip on the egg shells for thecdogsc
Can I ask what you do with the beans that you make? I cant eat most traditional “refried” beans because of the lard content, but I’m also not eating many beans atm due to the carbs either (A1C and diabetic…trying to keep counts lower). Do you sort of use beans like mashed potatoes then? I just don’t have a good frame of reference and figured I’d ask! I’m soooo curious! (Also missing beans in my life).
They can be spread on tortillas for quesadillas or just used in burritos. If I had chips I’d heat them up and get dipping!
Reese,
I was recently introduced to the Glucose Goddess and she has a couple of books (which I borrowed from the library) as well as free content on Instagram and You Tube. You also can receive information from her if you sign up for her emails. She does not label legumes as bad for glucose/blood sugar level). You might want to check her out. Here is her list:
https://www.instagram.com/ketobeastbeauty/p/C5KAg7MvcXZ/?hl=en
I love GG too!
You can just warm the beans, add herbs and spices, and then mash them. No need for lard at all.
Wow, Katy, you’re on a tear. Thanks for challenging me to come up with my own frugal things.
1. As I’m typing this, my husband is cooking dinner – Savory Tofu Rice – using up random ingredients.
2. Dug dead annuals out of a large pot that I then filled with leftover decor from last year – birch branches, red twig dogwood branches, and other uniquely shaped branches that I don’t know the name of. After Thanksgiving, I will fill in the pot with boughs from the Christmas tree farm where my husband works. The pot will stay outside by our front door for a couple months.
3. Found lampshades for two lamps for $10 less than I wanted to spend. One of these lamps was free from my brother and the other was purchased at a consignment shop.
4. While I was purging my recipe files, I pulled out a half dozen or so recipes to create a meal plan. Minimal ingredients need to be purchased. I plan to continue this practice as a way of getting to all my saved recipes before I die (not imminent as far as I know).
5. Made smoothies out of all sorts of random things.
Oh my goodness MB! I read your #2 kind of quickly and thought you had written: Dug dead ANIMALS out of a large pot… So glad I read it again! Lol
Same!
Dead animals would make quite a story!
SAME! I thought she was rather casual about it, too… LOL
That’s exactly what I thought it said when I first read it!!
I put a hold on that book at the library. Thanks for the suggestion
thank you for continuing to post frequently. it’s helping me feel grounded in this difficult time. really appreciate it. i just have to say, we have tons of little libraries in my neighborhood and the books and magazines are really reflecting the moment we are in!
Katy, do you know there are Fred Meyer ads, in the middle of the blog? Lol
Thanks for your frequent posts. They are wonderful reminders of the good people in this country, both pre and post this disastrous election. I love reading your blog as I’m not naturally super frugal so your ideas are very inspiring.
I’ve been using my Instant Pot to make Pinch of Yum’s delicious applesauce. Might be a good use for your apples if you want to try something new. I never even knew I liked applesauce until I tried this recipe. Warm out of the pot it tastes like a decadent dessert. https://pinchofyum.com/easy-instant-pot-applesauce
1. Meal prepped for the first time in a month. Have been winging it and feel out of control!
2. Went to Aldi and only bought what was on the list.
3. Looked over my stockpiled gifts and made up a more complete list of what/who I need to buy for.
4. Car insurance went down about 30 dollars a month. Woo hoo!
5. Transferred my Ibotta money directly to my checking.
1. Used a 5$ off a 25$ dollar purchase at Dollar General. I got my male cat some Dollar General canned cat food. He has digestive issues & I’ve tried the more expensive brands, but it did not help. He likes the Dol Gen brand & he is gaining weight. (He has been to the vet to the tune of 600$ to no avail.)
2. Katy inspires me to look in the pantry to cook with what I have on hand. I batch cooked several pans of casserole. I used some softening potatoes, milk that was slightly off to make a white sauce, canned pork, frozen peas & carrots, and cheese to make them. One we eat. The other two went in the freezer.
3. My husband finally sold a car that has been sitting in the driveway for 2 years. I’m so happy it is gone.
4. I saw an ad on Next Door Neighbor for a free king fitted sheet & a tee shirt in my size. The poster lives near my school. I can pick them up on the way home next week.
5 I could use some new scrub uniforms. Instead, I am wearing my slightly faded ones to work. I have some black scrub tops my sister gave me which don’t fit. I plan to take these to the psy hospital near me for the mental health techs (if they want them).
What a cool neighborhood!! Im in the rural midwest, and we don’t neighbor very effectively.
Nor do we where I live, but the Nextdoor app is a decent substitute. I’ve gotten help with the feral cat colony I feed, I lent a neighbor my pressure canner, gotten loads of advice about tradespeople, purchased firewood, learned about a canasta club I want to join; I find it very handy.
Resistant, survival, revival – them of a PBS show I’ve adopted as a vaccine for Orange Pox.
1 – better half and I split house cleaning so no cash outlay for cleaning
2 – I have 4 water sources for wildlife during the summer, two I heat during the winter. The heater, cords, bungee cords are stored in my shed (heaters cleaned) during the off season. Set up today, will plug-in when the temps require it
3 – Moved wood for next season from one rack to another to free up space. Helped split then stack some next season wood.
4 – loaded up a dead tree better half cut up, ready to burn this season
5 – better half made chili yesterday which we ate for lunch as well as froze some for later. Welcome meal after the morning work.
6 – fire in the wood stove after the morning work as well as a well deserved nap. Burning firewood pays off in so many ways – good exercise cutting, hauling, splitting, stacking, burning, saving money.
Heats us twice, splitting and stacking and then burning.
1. I took.my mom for a nice ride in the country. We bought apple cider and apples from a local farmer. We also stopped at the Goodwill in a small town where I purchased some items to sell on Ebay.
2. I bought gas from the Walmart gas station near my mom’s house. It’s the cheapest in town. The same as Costco but on my route.
3. We ate frozen pot pies on sale from Costco since I didn’t feel like cooking. Other dinners have been leftovers.
4. My youngest daughter and I have been taking turns blowing leaves into the weeds under the trees they came from. I purchased the blower last year. It’s made this chore so much easier and was worth every penny.
5. I’m meditating in the morning instead of watching the news. I’m ignoring he who shall not be named. Also no gold plated apartment in the sky for me.
Jill, I’m meditating, too. And being much more productive with my time now that I’m not consuming as much news.
I too was reluctant to buy an Instant Pot but I love it for legumes. I also like using it for butternut squash and sweet potatoes.
1. A while back DH found a long hair in a chicken sausage. The company sent me a coupon for a free package of their product. I knew that they were occasionally Buy One Get One Free at Giant so I patiently waited to see if it would happen again. This week it did so I received two free packages yesterday.
2. We stopped at Grocery Outlet and bought snacks based on value. We get a variety that way and don’t pay much. We try to keep them on the healthy side.
3. We put leaves from the patio in our composter. They are very dry this year and break down easily. DH mowed the lawn with our electric mower and it broke down the leaves which we will leave in place.
4. We walked past a couple of Little Free Libraries and brought home a few books.
5. I gave away an item on the Buy Nothing group that DH rescued from the trash at work.
5.
I’ve dubbed this month as No No November (no extra spending)
1. We’re going to a gala aka fundraiser on Friday pm. I did not buy anything new.
2. My sister and I donated several items that will be made into gift baskets
3. I bought a .97 plastic travel bottle to fill with face wash from the larger bottle in the shower
4. Hubby had to have microbial soap before his hand surgery so I’ve taken that 16 oz bottle to use at the kitchen sink
5. Updated listings on FB market place
FTFT, Saturday Morning Out Edition:
(1) For the first time in a good while, I visited the Farmers’ Market at our Regional Market yesterday morning. In addition to buying eggs and veg, I (a) returned four empty egg cartons to the folks I bought eggs from; and (b) left some laughter in my wake when, after buying a bunch of rather expensive but lovely leeks, I broke out my favorite line that Julia Child probably never said: “First, take a leek!”
(2) My next stop was the Wegmans in a suburb north of the Regional Market, where I covered my entire modest tab with the proceeds from NY State container returns–**and** got 54 cents back. I love it when Danny Wegman has to pay me instead of vice versa. 😀
(3) After that, I visited the nearby Thrifty Shopper store. The only earth-shaking find was a pair of like-new Brooks Addiction walking shoes (retail = $150) for my next-door neighbor (NDN)–and if NDN decides she doesn’t like them, I’m confident I can resell them at Clothes Mentor.
(4) I also found several small, useful household items in their original packaging. The three Hefty 1-quart freezer containers included a coupon for Sure-Jell pectin–which I was pretty sure would have expired, but I wasn’t expecting an expiration date of 12/31/91. My guess was that these items were from a cleanout after a death, and I’m sorry that the original purchaser didn’t let her/himself go ahead and use them.
(5) After my return home, I made a potato/leek soup with my lovely Farmers’ Market leeks and some potatoes I needed to use up. I haven’t made this soup in a while, and it was the first time I’ve had to get out the “kitchen vibrator” (as my beloved Two Fat Ladies used to call an immersion blender) in quite some time.
A. Marie, I love my kitchen vibrator! Too funny. So is “take a leek.”
I really appreciate you posting more frequently, Katy!
1) Helped my parents book flights here using miles, & they paid $22 out of pocket (taxes) for two flights to see DS17 at various senior events.
2) Had leftovers for dinner, and played cards with DH. Both free activities. I was so, so tempted to have takeout for dinner, but pressed on because DH encouraged good behavior. 😉
3) Caught up with two friends via over the events of the last week. One led to an absolutely fabulous phone call last night, and it was so much fun to chat.
4) Doing a virtual happy hour (I’ll drink tea) with my sister & BFF this afternoon.
5) Didn’t go to family weekend for DS18, because he’s coming home for Thanksgiving in just a few weeks. However, my sister did go (she’s in driving distance) & spoiled him! I took her son to Las Vegas for an impromptu trip, and I love that the two of us are so close, and treat our nephews like our own kids. I feel super lucky about that.
6) Bonus: helped DS17 fill out a scholarship application form.
1.) I’m currently working on digitizing my wardrobe using the Whering app. I’m excited because it shows you how many times you wear an item, which I think will help me get more use out of my clothes I don’t wear as much. I’m trying to wear everything in my closet at least 30 times!
2.) Someone I did freelance work for is finally paying me in installments! Yay!
3.) I resisted taking an Uber today. The train was running on a reduced schedule, and I was scared I would be late but it all worked out!
4.) Most of my Halloween costume was secondhand (skirt rented, shirt and cardigan from my moms closet.) I will get use out of the scrunchie I bought, and I plan on giving the cigarettes to someone. (I was Veronica from the movie Heather’s).
5.) I continue to pick up change when I see it. I try to get use out of my monthly subway card that my company pays for. I get free bagels, almond milk, and cereal from my work every week.
Hello, Avery! You seem to be a young urban professional, which tends to be an under-represented group on the frugality blogs. Please keep posting!
I love my instapot! Last year I made applesauce in it and it was sooo quick.
Harvested a big cabbage out of the fall garden bed, making a big batch of cabbage rolls and will have Asian cabbage salad for dinner twice this week and then use the rest for stir fry.
Got a quote to do roof maintenance, then offered the job to my nephew saving hundreds. Normally I do the work myself, but my knee is messed up .
Found .26 in the parking lot, used it at check out.
Picked the last of the winter pears, wrapped and boxed up for storage.
Neighbor gave me 4 pumpkins, I roasted and pureed and froze in 1 cup bags.
Winterized garden hoses, insulated outside standing spigots and ones around the house. I made fancy draw string insulators out of winter jackets that I picked up at Goodwill bins (pay by the pound). I have been making these as gifts for all of the family. I make one per year for each household and they look forward to them! I can make 4 -6 per jacket depending on the size of coat. I use the leftovers to insulate the water meters and make fresh pet beds for the barn cats.
Love that you’re reusing jackets. There is so much useful material in them and they are often tossed for relatively minor cosmetic issues.
Please tell me how you make insulators out of recycled jackets! Amazing 🙂
1. Last night I went out with my nephew and his girlfriend (not frugal) but we did find a meter with 1.5 hours left on it.
2. Tonight’s dinner will cost pennies. I’ll make braised chicken (free from a mystery shop) with carrots, leeks, potatoes (free CSA box), a $.50 can of beans, kale, thyme, and parsley from the garden.
3. Tomorrow night’s dinner will be tacos with beef (free from mystery shop) FlashFood 1/2 price taco shells, cheese (free from mystery shop), cabbage (free CSA box), $.50 can of beans, and cherry tomatoes (garden), and lime juice from the dented vegetable rack.
4. While the oven is on tonight, I’ll roast off butternut squash (free from CSA) to make into soup using homemade “scrap” chicken stock for Thanksgiving dinner.
5. Drank coffee from home using coffee beans purchased with a coupon.
Your mystery shops seem to never stop providing!
1. Bought a modest chuck roast on sale ($11 plus as opposed to $18 plus), cut it in half, froze one half, and cooked the other for my husband’s lunch with carrots, sweet peppers, onions and garlic.
2. There’s a gallon bag of peeled carrot chunks in the freezer. Every time we have a few carrots going limp, I process them for freezing and toss ’em in the bag. When it’s time to make a roast, the carrots are ready to go into the pot.
3. Gave my dogs a bath and brushed them out.
4. Mended a chewed-on dog toy. Mended a sheet with a hole in it. Laundered all the dog toys, which renewed Demon Puppy’s interest in them.
5. Made a big pan of mixed berry baked oatmeal and portioned it up into future breakfasts for the freezer.
Bonus: Spent a long time working on a comprehensive budget in advance of DH’s retirement next spring.
Mixed berry baked oatmeal? That sounds delicious!
So smart to use half and freeze the other half of your chuck roast.
1) A nearby nursery is closing for the season, so I dropped by to check the free table and pick up BOGO herb plants. This yielded free flats of greens and perennial plants including catnip – my husband is soft on the new cat, and I was scandalized to see him pay actual money for kitty drugs when there are huge plants less than a block in every direction. Now we’ll have our own. There was also a full-size scented geranium, which will live on the windowsill where I work, and a ton of bay leaves and hot peppers to dry.
2) I planted the greens to overwinter – my first sustained gardening task since long Covid. As tired as I am, the gratitude is overwhelming whenever my body can handle something I thought it might never do again. The soil in the raised bed was the base of a deep litter/hugelkultur chicken coop pre-Covid, amended with biochar. It’s all aged to perfection, rich and crumbly and full of earthworms. I was so out of it for so long, it’s such a joy to see nature taking care of everything with or without me. The coop is now falling apart and needs to be tossed, but the materials for the raised bed and coop were almost all scavenged, and I have a few tweaks to make for the next one.
3) I found an odd tchotchke on the free table, which on closer inspection seems to be a Bakelite tobacco or cosmetics jar, and the glasses I picked up for Thanksgiving from our local used kitchenware shop are very spendy French crystal. We’ll use them, then I’ll send them on to someone who cares more about that kind of fancy than I do.
4) We ate simply this week, starting with a roast chicken; all that’s left now is the stock. I’m still using up every scrap of tea in the house, adding bergamot oil to plain black tea that isn’t what it ought to be to make Earl Grey – which is supposedly how it was invented, to use up the iffy stuff.
5) Not frugal, but not a fail: picked up my special order of a friend’s new book from our local independent bookstore. It cost more than it would have from you know where; don’t care.
I 110% approve of spending money to buy a friend’s book from an independent bookseller.
So sorry to read about your apparent long Covid symptoms, happy that you’re able to do a few things with the energy you have.
Thanks, Katy. We had it twice before the vaccine was available, really crashed the second time (in different but equally bad ways) and have been slowly recovering since October 2020. It was incredibly disruptive and costly – decades of frugality are the main reason we didn’t lose our home. I’m at a loss to understand how folks without savings survived.
Mati, I’m so glad to hear of your healing. And your hugelkultured/biochar soil sounds fabulous! Our hugelkultured berry beds were planted during what turned out to be a drought year, but still only needed watering once or twice that season. Same for the occasional dry or drought year here since then.
If you keep your Kindle on Airplane mode, the book will not be automatically returned to the library. I have experienced having a book disappear before I am finished reading it, and then I discovered if I put the Kindle on Airplane mode I can rest assured it will not go away until I turn Airplane mode off. If I know the deadline for returning the book is coming up, I try and hurry to finish reading so I am not causing a problem for the next person requesting it.
I’ve read that it does return to the library, making it available to the next person on the list, yet stays visible on your kindle as long as it’s not connected to the internet. Victimless A-okay crime. <---- Not at all a crime.
My favorite use of the Instapot is to cook hard boiled eggs. Do this twice a week as we eat lots of these. And they are a handy protein snack or breakfast on the go.
I too read “dead animals”. 🙂
Welcome to InstaPotistan, Katy! ☺️ I use our large one 2-3 times a week, sometimes more, and use our small one often more than once a day. Cooked up a batch of steel cut oats for DH two nights ago, he’ll use portions of it for breakfast over the ensuing week. Cooked up a big batch of potatoes which we refrigerated then reheated a few at a time for smashed potatoes (chilling them after cooking and before air frying increases the oil-free crispiness, saving $, calories, and inflammation.)