Five Tiniest Frugal Things
by Katy on September 6, 2025 · 6 comments
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My husband got a piece of junk mail from Twinings tea, which contained two random bags of tea. Okay . . . we’ll take ’em! Nice to have a variety of different teas to offer when we have guests to the house.
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I stopped by my daughter’s apartment this evening and noticed that she had a light out in the bathroom. Luckily I have a bag of curb picked light bulbs and a generous heart. Lucky girl.
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My youngest continues on their side hustle journey and dropped by the house after work to package up four items that sold. They mentioned buying their own shipping supplies for future orders, which prompted a lesson on where to score free shipping supplies.
• Ask the person in your office who manages the mail and packages.
• Visit stores and ask if they have shipping supplies, (boxes, bubble wrap, etc) to get rid of.
• Ask in your Buy Nothing group for packaging supplies.
Honey, never ever pay for shipping supplies!
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I pruned back my forsythia, which filled two yard debris bins! Luckily I have an extra bin from sharing garbage service with our next door neighbors. I’ll ask friends across the street if I can set one of them out with their garbage next week, as they rarely put out a yard debris can.
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I spent yet another day loving the stunning vibrant city of Portland, Oregon, despite the O.F.F. (Orange Felonious Fascist) referring to my home as a “living hell.”
Katy Wolk-Stanley
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{ 6 comments… read them below or add one }
I completely agree with the never ever paying for shipping supplies! I have been known to use cornflakes boxes etc.
* Brought one of my homemade apple sauce jars along as a hostess gift.
* Paying it forward: Donated 2 pairs of shorts that did not sell on Vinted to a local charity shop. Since summer is over the chances of them still selling were very slim and they were cluttering up my wardrobe.
* I’m using Chat GPT to create recipes. For example I enter the prompt: I want to make apple scones with grated apple that are gluten free (and not too dry) … and Chat GPT gives me a recipe. That one turned out very well!
* Planted rocket which will hopefully give us fresh rocket well into November.
* My mission to use up our abundance of apples continues, this week I made: apple butter (4 jars), apple & banana cake and the above apple scones.
Frugal Fails
1. I’ve bern dealing with an abcess for about a week, and I can’t get in to the dentist until the 23rd. 3 meds my insurance doesn’t cover and I don’t have dental insurance. Thankful though that the prescribed medications were “cheap,” – $35 total. It could have been a lot worse.
2. Dropped my last kids (my 5 Amish kids) yesterday afternoon. I’m almost home and my phone rings to the tune of “The wheels on the bus go round and round…” That ringtone means it’s either my boss or one of my parents. I pull over and answer the phone. It’s Elmer (one of my kids – yes, my Amish families have phones, still trying to wrap my head around that). Anyway, Elmer left his ball glove on the van and their family is going to visit relatives this morning and the kids are going to play ball. I told him I would bring it over as I was almost home. Their house is roughly 16 miles from mine. Got the glove out of the van, grabbed DH, and took the glove to him. (I’m probably the only driver who would go out of my way like that for a kid.) He was happy. His mom gave me a bag of dried fruit (apples, peaches, and marshmallows) that she makes as a thank you. I told Elmer to have fun and to make sure his team wins today’s game. DH and I stopped on the way home for supper as I was too pooped to cook anything and I really just wanted to go home to my ice pack. I got a bowl of chicken noodle soup since that was all I could muster with a sore mouth, and it didn’t require much chewing. The extra expense for eating out was worth it to me lsdt night.
3. My uncle passed on Sunday and his memorial service is this morning. Have to go out of our way to pick my sister up to take her with us. On the plus side, a friend had given us a brand new dremel kit about a year ago that we didn’t have a need or use for. We FINALLY sold it and are meeting the buyer this morning on our way to pick up my sister to deliver the dremel kit and collect the money.
4. With my sore mouth, I’ve been living on yogurt, instant oatmeal, cottage cheese, jello, etc. Of course, I had NONE of that on hand, so I spent extra shopping this past week. Found a bag of pierogis in the freezer which I will try eating tonight.
5. Did manage to do 2 loads of laundry this week and hang it in the spare room this week. I guess that counts for something.
My old grill cover ripped along the top. I cut it the rest of the way so I can use it to cover our picnic table over winter.
We have a couple of small piles of branches that need to go to compost, we thought about hiring it out but if we do a small batch each week we can get it done in a month or two.
I took the decorations off my small Christmas tree and I will use it for Halloween decorations. I went to Goodwill for ornaments and they did not have any. I will try the dollar store.
Meijer had some good clearance deals on things I can gift for Christmas, they are remodeling.
I loaded up all the baby toys and took them to Goodwill, I did not want to piecemeal them out on marketplace. Free stuff on Marketplace = unreliable people. I need to join a freebie group. I might have more luck with that.
I have given away lots of packing supplies on my Buy Nothing group (and on Freecycle back in the day!)
I leave for a work trip tomorrow, and will be gone for 17 days, so I’m trying to preserve as much food as possible
1. I canned 7.5 quarts of tomato sauce, from free tomatoes, onions, and garlic. I have another 2 pints to can today.
2. Canning 4 pints of peaches today, from free peaches.
3. I will shred zucchini, squeeze as much water out as possible, and freeze.
4. My parents wanted to see me between trips, so we met halfway between houses (about an hour for each of us). Dad paid for lunch, I paid for the tip, and handed over to my parents the extra food from the mystery shop and CSA box that I wasn’t going to eat before I left.
5. I brought home the leftovers, including the unused lemon wedge.
Last night’s frugal dinner was chilaquiles, made from tomatillos and tortillas that were in the freezer, to which I added zucchini and canned beans. Topped with the last eggs from my sister’s free-range chickens.
Otherwise: drinking coffee at home, tonight’s meals are all leftovers, and not driving anywhere for the duration of the weekend.
seriously love that your young’un is willing to listen/learn…spending less on boring stuff leaves more money for FUN
1. had my usual yogurt breakfast, which includes 2 tbs chia seeds & 1/3 cup of granola–measured out ’cause then those foods last longer & I eat just enough to suit me
2. 1 tbs laundry detergent for the load in the cold water wash now & one measured tablespoon of dishwasher detergent cleaning dishes now too
3. as it’s on the way, I grocery shop every couple of days, which makes it super easy to pick up discounted veg & plan a meal around it. Half bag of “stir fry” vegetables went into yesterday’s li’l crock of veg soup, other half will go into a stir fry for lunch today. Paying $2.47 instead of $3.99 for that bag & $1.44 instead of $3.99 mushrooms def pays for the little bit of gas spent turning in instead of driving by
4. tumbling clothing in dryer just a few minutes before hanging to dry rest of way to save on wear/tear. wish I could talk myself into hang drying all the way, ’cause I feel sure that the dryer shortens the lifespan of the stretchy part of so many fabrics
5. working harder to get lunch cooked before leaving the house in the morning. keeps us from wanting to eat out if food is ready and waiting at home.