Five Tiniest Frugal Things
by Katy on September 6, 2025 · 47 comments
-
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.
-
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.
-
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!
-
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.
-
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
Like this post? Then please share it with your friends!
Like this:
Like Loading...
{ 47 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.
Is “rocket” what we’d call “arugula” here in the US? I think it is, and if so, it should certainly keep producing into late fall.
Yes, Rocket is arugula. And the reminder to plant some is timely! Gardening day today, gonna get some seeds in for end of September munching.
Yes, it is, as per Google!
I find boxes & packing material on the curb when people order online. They often put the discards out on the curb. I am in the process of moving & have found boxes I need in the neighborhood.
That’s very handy!
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.
I am not a dentist or medical professional but I knew someone who had an abscess who developed some dire complications (blindness in one eye) from delaying treatment too long. I am hoping that one of your interim medications is an antibiotic of some sort?
I had an abscess 10 years ago when I was in Amsterdam. Gosh it was painful. Our VRBO landlord referred me to a Dutch dentist who (for cash upfront) put me out of my misery temporarily with some drilling and also prescribed an antibiotic and ibuprofen. He advised me to see my up regular dentist as soon as I returned to the US. It was quite an adventure as dentists in the NL had a different work process. Luckily this dentist assured me it wasn’t his first rodeo and tbatbhe had done a 6 month rotation in the US as part if his training. When I got back, my dentist said that the NL dentist had done exactly what needed to be done at the time,
In the meantime , could you possibly see a drop in “street” dentist or whoever is on call for your dentist?
Melissa N,
Not trying to scare you but as Jean C mentioned, the complications, of a tooth abscess can be quite severe.
Please don’t wait till the 23rd.
https://basindentistry.com/blog/dangers-untreated-dental-abscess/#:~:text=Not%20only%20can%20this%20infection,tooth%20abscess%20can%20be%20deadly.&text=An%20abscess%20can%20originate%20from,or%20from%20an%20untreated%20cavity.
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.
Made a batch of skyr. Shared half with a friend who is suffering side effects of cancer treatments. He uses it to make smoothies. I also gave him several quarts of freezer applesauce and made him my spicy prune bars. They have extra fiber taste like a gingerbread/brownie. I cut them and wrap as he likes them straight out of the freezer.
Picking more apples for freezer applesauce and chunk apples for future delicious fried apples.
Will plant the broccoli, cauliflower and carrots today.
Katy, keep showing and sharing with us your beautiful and generous Portland. I always pictured myself living in a close knit neighborhood like yours and enjoying all that the Rose City offers.
Blue Gate Farmgirl, will you share your recipe for those spicy prune bars? Please and thank you!
Second that request for spicy prune bars, sounds delish!
I live in the redneck state of Arizona so the orange man leaves us alone a lot.. but just down the road from me we have a detention center.. hard to swallow..I live here, but I do not have anything in common with the prevailing political winds in this place. I send small contributions to candidates for change. At least we have a Dem. governor right now!!
Frugalities:
I HAVE to wear good shoes.My feet kinda fell apart on me and I am very active, so the VIONICS I wear are a must.They are soo expensive, BUT I have found that many people buy them and cannot tolerate the breaking in period (they have rather high hard arch support that REALLY WORKS FOR ME).. so they get sold ALMOST NEW on ebay! I troll the listings and buy a couple of pair every year and just scored two pairs of sandals, one casual, one for a bit nicer outfits.. and made LOW BALL OFFERS which were accepted!! YAY!!
I am eating down our freezer..I tend to over stock up and then, chaos in the freezer..today is a clean out and organize day and I will be preparing a few weeks meals around what is in there!! Should be low grocery bills this coming weeks..
My husband switched to STEEL CUT OATS for breakfast and I found an old stash of rolled oats in pantry..so, I am making oatmeal cookies for our Saturday night move night at home treat!!
I am studying AI online,for free,using some tools my techy son gave me.. because I can’t stand to get behind in tech matters. It’s a little scary and also interesting.We are going ot be in Brooklyn NYC this December and I am TIRED Of being the PLANNER..so I asked AI to plan out a week of activities for us..museums,parks, etc with low cost restaurants for our lunches out..and it did a spectacular job. I am on the fence about how this tech is gonna affect all of oiur society,however.
I am reviving my small astrology practice,I need the intellectual and spiritual stimulation,I miss my clients, and I miss the “pin money.”,so a little extra income on the way.
I’m with you on the shoes. That’s my one splurge, and I think it is worth every penny! I wear thrifted items from my head to my ankles.
My youngest is preparing to move into their first apartment and I’ve been hustling to help them find furniture and kitchen supplies. A friend eagerly informed me that she’d be hosting a garage sale, where she’d be selling off the leftover household goods from her parents’ house. (They recently moved into a retirement home.) She told me there would be lots of good stuff for my kids’ apartment at great prices. She was so persuasive that I dragged a teenager out of bed IN THE MORNING to find the sale. It was mostly “Home Goods” type crap, not the quirky 1970s gems we’d hoped to find. If someone wanted a painting of a sloth or highland cow, or a “Live Love Laugh” sign, this was the place to be. Also, the prices weren’t great. They were maybe 30-50% of what they might ask at Home Goods. Needless to say, we were disappointed. Also, I was in the awkward position of finding nothing worthwhile at a friend’s sale. If the friend wasn’t involved, then I would have left empty-handed, but we did find one thing to purchase so that everyone involved could save face.
It was a frugal fail, but I had fun bonding with my kid.
I’m sorry about the awkwardness with your friend–but I also get it about people asking too much for complete tat at garage sales. They’re probably hoping to make back at least a percentage of what they spent on the stuff, which is an ineffective approach to garage sale pricing. The effective approach is to go as low on pricing as you can stand to do, so that the stuff will actually sell.
This approach was nicely summed up by an Irish Jesuit priest friend who happened by one of our garage sales back in the 1990s. (I’m pretty sure I’ve told this story before, but it’s too good not to repeat.) After watching attentively for several minutes, he said, “Now let me get this straight: In America, people actually pay you a small fee to haul away your junk?” DH beamed and replied, “Is this a great country or what?” Well, it was still a great country back then. 🙁
Maybe the one good outcome of the Orange Menace’s policies will be a prohibitively high tariff on highland cow art.
We can always hope!
Also on dogs playing poker.
Paintings of Elvis on black velvet anyone?
I used to participate and help a friend with her garage sale every couple years. It was comical and painful go watch her try to get more money than many items were worth. It was so hard for her to part with well used crap. There was one fellow who would always come late morning and bargain with her – it nearly killed her to practically give her stuff to him. I think he had her number because over the years he always put in an appearance.
Haha. You think she’d learn!
1. Made up a Mexican theme concoction using food on hand: rice, beans, onions, peppers, mushrooms, zucchini, tomatoes, salsa, chili powder, shredded Cheddar and avocado slices. Filled a 9 x 13 pan to the brim.
2. Concocted an Indian theme dish with peanut oil, onions, spinach, tomatoes, tofu cubes, chickpeas, coconut milk, curry and garam masala over rice. Enjoyed this for several meals.
3. My sister treated me and my husband to dinner for our birthdays. Used my kit of containers for leftover salad, pasta and yummy dipping sauce from the French fries.
4. Husband found a round-trip flight for $500 less than the original one he was planning to book. It’s an airport further away from his destination but it’s still worth it.
5. Received from Buy Nothing: 4 boxes of Triscuits and 8 lbs. (not a typo) of popcorn kernels.
Fun free tea!
1. I’m annoyed at my husband because her said we had no beans in our storage bucket, and I bought a 25 pound bag and I go to the buckets and we have a nearly full one of beans! Also we buy a gallon of milk because it’s cheaper and he’s supposed to freeze 3/4 of it (in 3 1-quart freezer containers and leave 1/4 in fridge. But there’s currently 6 1-quart containers of milk in the freezer!?!
2. Peeling and freezing free apples today
3. We’re just about keeping up with eating the grapes that our vines produce.
4. I sold an item on FB marketplace that I had listed at an aspirational price. It never hurts to try!
5. Gave away a makeup mirror on buy nothing
I foresee many beans, many MANY beans, in your future…
This post made me laugh because my own parents somehow have amassed a generational supply of lightbulbs and toothbrushes. My mom is always like “never ever buy those items..I have so many…I don’t know how I have so many.” . I figure we will eventually get through them.
1. I had milk going sour, even though it hadn’t gone beyond its sell-by date. I figured the best way to rescue it was to make pancake batter. However, after I got into it, I realized I didn’t have enough flour. So I froze what I had put together and labeled it with what I need to add once I buy some flour.
2. On a walk I found a stack of plastic cups, which I don’t use for myself but I do use when I host family diner/game days. I also found two sconces, which I considered keeping but have now decided I will take to Goodwill.
3. My Powerball ticket won $4! Yay! However, when I turned it in for cash, the cashier misunderstood and printed off two more tickets! I didn’t make a fuss about it because he was nice and I didn’t want him to get in trouble with his boss. Haven’t checked yet to see if either ticket won a billion.
4. Got two more books from LFL’s. One was a money management book that turned out to be mostly about investing, so I have returned it already.
5. Made a fruitful visit to the LFP. I am so grateful for this resource.
One more to add — my grandson left four receipts in the car, which I have scanned to Fetch!
My husband had an impressive stash of LED lightbulbs, some of which were early models and fit none of our fixtures. He sorted them out and I packaged them up for the thrift store. If we are donating something a bit unusual, I always stick a label on it with what it is, what it fits, and any other useful info.
DH and DS repaired a ceiling fan this morning, saving us a $200+ visit from an electrician. Yesterday we did pay $250 to have an exterminator deal with a basketball-size hornets’ nest in our front yard. DH is mildly allergic to stings and it was 10 feet up in a tree, so money well spent. I guess we about broke even on the home maintenance with those two issues.
How about Orange Felonious Fascist Asshat Liar? O.F.F.A.L.
Or Asshat Wimpy Felonious Un-American Liar (AWFUL)?
Mailed 2 online sales this am
Scored a box of dishes 4 place settings for free which I gave to
our son who just moved out
Sister who lives next door is having garage sale next month. I started gathering items for sale
Discovered 4 new in package cushions for patio furniture. Son and daughter in law had bought them. She didn’t want them so I’ll list on marketplace place
Scored 2 pairs of exercise/lounge wear pants for free
FTFT, A Mixed Bag Edition:
(1) Frugal fail: When I went out intending to run a few non-essential errands yesterday, Nellybelle (my 2010 Honda Element) wouldn’t start. Had to wait 2.5 hours instead of the estimated 1.5 for an AAA truck to get here, and then I had to buy a new battery, since the old one was (by my recollection) 8 years old and couldn’t be resuscitated. So it goes.
(2) But a sort of win: The AAA man said that the average life of a car battery is 5 years, so the old one doesn’t owe me anything. Also, things could have been a lot worse: At least this happened in my own driveway and as I was about to run non-essential errands solo, as opposed to (a) during JASNA BFF’s recent visit, (b) during Grad School BFF’s upcoming visit, or (c) while I was hurrying down the NY State Thruway trying to beat a storm home from a friend’s memorial service two weeks ago! (And, BTW, that storm was no joke: It temporarily shut down the NY State Fair.)
(3) At any rate, I got out today to run the errands I’d been going to run yesterday. And I was able to pick up a prescription at the Wegmans pharmacy that came in between then and now, so I didn’t have to make two trips. I’ll call that a win.
(4) And the battery incident has pushed me into deciding to rent a car for my trip to Baltimore for next month’s JASNA Annual General Meeting. There are some isolated stretches of I-81 in PA where I don’t want to take any chances. I got a reasonably good deal with Avis through my AARP discount.
(5) Finally, it’s been cold, dank, and drizzly most of today, so I decided to kick off autumn soup season by making a clean-out-the-fridge minestrone. I was particularly glad to bid farewell to the last quarter of The Zucchini That Wouldn’t Die (the baseball-bat-size zuke that Bailey dog’s mom gave me about two weeks ago). Believe it or not, most of that was still good.
The only drawback to a faithful 15 year old car is that getting stranded in town is an inconvenienc while getting stranded many miles from home is dangerous. When we had to make umpteen trips to the next state to settle my late brother’s estate, we went in DH’s much younger sedan instead of my ancient Fit.
Exactly, Ruby. Hence my #4 decision. And I’m sorry that settling your brother’s estate turned out to be such a hassle (as I recall from previous comments of yours).
A. Marie – be sure to wave to your right as you go South on I-81 as you pass the junction of I-80. I live about an hour and a half west of where those 2 roads intersect.
Read your #1 and jumped up to fetch my Twinings junk mailer out of the blue bin (just put there this morning) to save the tea! Thanks, Katy!
I’m on a girls weekend with a friend. She would not let me pay for my half of the rental, but instead suggested that I pay for her food this weekend. I tried to talk her out of that, but she insisted, so I am gratefully buying her anything she wants to eat.
Frugal – she doesn’t eat much! We went to a pub for lunch, and we both brought our leftovers back to the cabin for supper. We bought some snacks for later. We happened upon a local festival so window shopped at the craft stalls and watched part of the parade.
We both love to thrift so we went to the Goodwill in that town. I think Goodwills have lost their damn minds. There was an ugly snowman door decoration, that I thought I could deconstruct in order to make a prettier one, but they were asking $5. It was from the DOLLAR TREE, before it turned into the $1.25 Tree! I left it behind. I did find an adorable dress for my granddaughter in a bigger size for $2 and a pack of brand new silicone ice trays (my son had requested ice trays for Christmas ).
We sat on the porch, watched it rain, and chatted and read our books. A perfectly relaxing visit!
I started a pantry cleanse on August 15 but my shelves are more crowded than ever! It turns out that the harvest feast of late summer in New England outruns my best efforts. I remind myself that my true goal is to avoid food waste, and I’m doing that by cooking, freezing, drying, and just plain eating as much of the plenty as I can.
In just over three weeks I’ve bought: five onions, three heads of garlic, lemon juice for freezing apples, one avocado, a flat of tomatoes to freeze, and a large chocolate bar. Oh, and a quart of vanilla ice cream I was asked to bring to a birthday party. I’m not counting one meal out when I treated my best friend to a birthday lunch. Meanwhile, I’ve frozen apples, chard, zucchini, summer squash, tomatoes, and green beans. All garden produce given to me; I’ll return the favor with soups in late fall using some of this bounty. And maybe a pie… Bags of bones and vegetable trimmings have become broth. I dried some mushrooms but that harvest has been meagre after a dry summer.
Anyway, I feel good about my efforts even though I haven’t reduced my inventory AT ALL. It doesn’t help that I live alone and have a small appetite. I know my future self will thank me.
Yeah, I am with you on the harvest season rush – it is a challenge when there are so many short-season fruits and veggies available NOW, that are worthy of freezing, dehydrating and canning – but it does fill up the shelves again. whoops…
Given the state of our economy and rising costs I consider keeping a fully stocked / restocked pantry a better investment than the stock market with a better chance for a good return on investment. We’re eating out of our pantry now with foods we stocked last year that now cost sometimes 20% more than when we stocked them.
1) Had to get some new work clothes (new job, more travel, different dress code), but made sure to build a “capsule style” work wardrobe, with pieces that all fit together & do not need to be dry cleaned & could allow for different weather. Returned everything I didn’t need.
2) Uploaded receipts to Fetch, and one to iBotta. I don’t typically buy things that iBotta has on offer, but they have a recurring CVS offer that is helpful. My local Rite Aid closed, so my prescription was transferred to CVS. I can upload my receipt to iBotta & get cash back for that. Also, when I’m buying gift cards (I bought a lot for graduation gifts), the CVS iBotta offer came in handy as well.
3) DH & I defrosted leftover beef & he made Philly cheese steaks for dinner. We put aside the extras so DS19 could have dinner when he got home from work.
4) I always save any credit card offers I think we will use, and even show the teens how to do this on their debit cards. Over the past week or so, three have paid off. (I don’t even try to remember to use them, because that could influence me to make a purchase I don’t need.) A gas fill up (DS19), a Southwest purchase (me, flight to LV for a girls trip/concert) & Seat Geek (game tickets for DS18 at college.)
5) I am focused on maxing out my 401k, even thought my job didn’t start until July. It’s quite a hit on the paycheck, but I’ll be happy when it’s done. I’m almost there.
I have a small ebay business, so far the only packaging I’ve paid for is polybags and tape. I have been able to get enough free boxes, bubble wrap and Styrofoam for mailing hardgoods in.
1. Working on decluttering the house. Collected some items to donate to Goodwill and I’ll get a coupon in return. A mirror I’m trying to sell on fb. And a pair of shoes, I’ll check to see if they’re worth selling. Plus the house feels nicer a little decluttered!
2. I put off grocery shopping, so ended up making homemade biscuits and eating lentils. Sometimes post-poning shopping helps me come up with meals based on what we already have.
3. I received my $3 giftcard from fetch rewards.
4. Ate leftovers for lunch
5. My daughter wanted a plant, so she took a cutting from her brother’s plant. I just love plants that grow from cuttings!