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I helped myself to five unused produce bags from this abandoned grocery cart to bring home for my litter boxes. I don’t buy plastic bags for the sole purpose of filling them with cat excreta. There’s enough plastic in the world without manufacturing more to just hold pee and poop.
I may have also scanned the receipt into the Fetch app.
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I stopped at this grocery store specifically to scope out the clearance produce shelf and I’m glad that I did, as I was able to buy five colorful bell peppers and three eggplants for just $3. (I was low on veggies, but not in the mood for a full-on Winco shopping excursion.) I’ll make some kind of eggplant/pepper combo to serve with pasta. Ooh . . . I just remembered that I have sautéed spicy sausage in the freezer, which’ll complement this imagined dish!
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My husband starts his annual two week vacation next week, but we’re going to mostly take it easy as it’s so expensive to pay for accomodation this time of year. We’ll likely go up to Mt. Hood for a few days, as a family member owns a cabin we can use, but we’ll mostly stick close to home as we pay thousands of dollars each month for the priviledge of living in our own house.
Portlanders are incredibly lucky to live an hour or two from the Pacific Ocean, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, wine country and countless beautiful outdoor areas. I don’t really really need to “get away from it all” when “it” is already idyllic. Plus the city of Portland has become a mecca for people wanting to vacation somewhere with mild weather, hundreds of amazing restaurants and very few red baseball caps.
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I hung out with my friend Lise while she pruned her native dogwood tree and she mentioned that the small branches make excellent stakes for gardening, so we stripped off the thin bark. This is how I now have six new stakes for my pitiful tomatoes.
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I took out $60 from an ATM to have enough cash to fill up my gas tank, as you get a 45¢/gallon discount when you pay with cash. The predatory ATM charged me $3.50, but I belong to a credit union that reimburses a certain number of ATM fees each month. I really don’t understant why anyone would choose to bank with a traditional bank over a credit union.
Five Tiny Frugal Things
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I always pick up the produce bags left in carts or on the ground and use them for produce and uncooked meat (before I place it in a reusable shopping bag). I reuse them if they haven’t been used for meat.
1. I walked to Walgreen’s to pick up an Rx. I used our FSA card to pay. I found a dime on the way home.
2. I finished listening/reading What Kind of Paradise. It was an interesting and thought provoking book. I returned the digital copies to the library so someone else can enjoy them. I am now listening to Emma by Jane Austen.
3. I made a large batch of GF pancakes for dinner. Leftovers were frozen for future meals. I ate mine with jam that has been open for a while.
4. I pay for a monthly membership at a local yoga studio. Since I was going to miss a couple of my regular classes while we were away for the weekend I signed up for a couple of virtual classes and received a recording afterwards since I didn’t attend while the class was in session. It gave me a chance to try a class I have never attended and I am “getting my moneys worth” from my membership.
5. It’s time to list yet more items on Freecycle as we just don’t need that much stuff. Some of it is knick knacks DH received from friends’ travels over the years. One does not need to buy souvenirs.
1. Like you, I don’t buy bags for animal excretments. We have enough just from grocery shopping. And I also use grocery plastic bags as liners for small trash cans.
2. My daughter made pizza bread from clearance pizza last night.
3. I’m saving marigold seeds from my flowers for future use
That pasta dish plan sounds good!
1. Found a scrunchie on the beach, washed it and am now using it. Also picked up assorted plastic and fishing net remnants to dispose of responsibly, filled up my whole reusable bag.
2. Mended my daughter’s shorts. I don’t have a mending pile – I would find that overwhelming, I think. I mend things pretty much straight away!
3. Discovered a brilliant recipe for healthy pinacolada ice pops using frozen pineapple and coconut milk and have been whizzing up several batches this week. A work colleague was suggesting to add rum! I won’t be going down that road but I guess it could be done – for an adult only version.
4. My husband hoovered and washed my car in the driveway.
5. My son brought home some more free (expired but still good) groceries from his work place: herbal tea, pretzel bites, peanut butter.
1. I used a $5 reward at Meijer to pick up a couple salad kits for a family dinner.
2. I sold two more items on Ebay and listed another.
3. I uploaded my receipts to fetch.
4. I gave my dog and my grand-dog some homemade dog ice cream for a treat last night.
5. I’m reading a new library book, The Collected Regrets Of Clover.
Katy, I joined our credit union in 1981, the year i went to work for AT&T. That might have been one of the most frugal things I’ve ever done!
I walked more than usual yesterday, found on the street and brought home a wooden spring clothespin, poop bag (unused ), and best of all a small plastic bin with a handle on the front for pulling it out of a cupboard. The bin has been washed and is now in use under the bathroom sink holding extra supplies.
DH and I cooked yet another dinner together. This time beef and broccoli that used up the last of a mistakenly purchased excess of broccoli. Added sliced heirloom tomatoes from the Sunday farmer’s market which were not frugal but were amazing.
Reused bread wrappers and other plastic bags to clean up some of the dirt left yet along the fence line by the gophers aerating our neighbors yard.
1) Last week I used a $5 voucher for Micheal’s to purchase, for only $2 after the voucher, the journal I like use for my annual planner (even though I won’t need it until December, I didn’t want a free $5 to go to waste). This purchase triggered something in their rewards system and today a $10 off $10 voucher was emailed to me. I’m not sure what I will get, but I have a month to decide.
2) I was working at a big box retailer yesterday (I do part-time vendor work for a local nursery), and the vendor for a rival nursery was also there clearing out their tomato plants. She offered me two five-gallon buckets of green tomatoes she gleaned from the plants before throwing them in the composter. Yes, please! We vendors trade “garbage” a lot, which is one of the perks of the job.
3) We cleaned out our bathroom and linen closet so we could figure out what all we had on hand. 17 tubes of toothpaste (received for free thanks to the monthly Fred Meyer’s coupons that always include a free tube of toothpaste coupon), 8 bars of Castile soap, 5 deodorants, two hair gel tubes, and four lotion tubes. Now we won’t waste money buying items we already had tucked away.
4) I continued to process produce — four dehydrator trays of sliced potatoes, 10 half-pints of pepper jelly, 7 pints of plums, and 7 half-pints of plum jam are ready for the pantry!
5) Made a door sweep from 1/4″ hardware cloth we had on hand. Winter is coming and mice can be a problem out in the country where we live. Our pantry is pretty impenetrable, except for a 2.5-inch space on the bottom of the door. The sweep should still allow air-flow while keeping out tiny marauders, if they manage to get in the house.
1. Made vegan ‘buttermilk’ biscuit for dinner last night with ingredients I already had on hand, including the homemade oat milk that gets turned into the ‘buttermilk’. My husband wanted gravy so he whipped some up from things in the cabinet, no packets here!
2. My husband and I are still decluttering and yesterday he hauled some things to sell at a pawn shop near where he works. They didn’t take as much as we thought they would, but we’re $45 richer and I’m sure the rest of the stuff can be sold off or donated elsewhere.
3. Making hamburger style buns today that we’ll use for pulled pork sandwiches. I plan on making a fairly large batch that I’ll freeze and pull out throughout the month according to our meal plan.
4. Ran out of coffee creamer, so we’re subbing in a splash of soy milk and homemade cocoa mix and it’s lessening the blow. I refuse to go without coffee but can’t tolerate it black.
5. Finished crocheting a small lap blanket for my youngest daughter yesterday, all with yarn I already had. So far in my goal to make as many gifts as possible for this year I’ve done well! I’ve only spent $5 out of pocket and been very good about using up the things I have already.
1. I turned some stale bread into breadcrumbs and stuck them in the freezer.
2. More laundry on the awkward rack outside to dry.
3. Our 40-year old dryer started leaving grease stains on our laundry before we got a free dryer via my Buy Nothing group. I’m trying to see if applying Dawn (free, from Mystery Shop) will remove the stains as well as it cleans ducks!
4. Instead of going out to dinner with friends tomorrow night, I’ve invited them over for dinner for a simple supper (all ingredients on hand already)
5. I often share with my family when I see them (they live about 2.5 hours away). We’ve accumulated several loaves of artisan bread from our free CSA box and a free bread sample from a mystery shop, as well as dishwashing liquid and all-purpose cleaning supplies. In return, my sister will give me garlic from her garden and eggs from her chickens (the best!), and my parents will give me tomatoes and rhubarb. I love the gifting economy!
1. My black badge holder for work is getting really worn at the corners so I used a sharpie marker to colored in those spots.
2. I brought a good lunch to the office that I’m pretty pumped about. Half a turkey sandwich and 2 different kinds of chips and dips.
3. A sales person is coming in today for a chat to catch up and said he will be treating me to coffee.
4. I’m making sure I use up all my free birthday rewards before they expire this week. (Jersey mikes sub, you pick 2 at Panera, and a movie ticket to my local theater)
5. My husband and I have been watching episodes of Stick using a free Apple TV trial. It’s funny and heartwarming.