Five Tiny Frugal Things
by Katy on August 27, 2025 · 54 comments
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My friend Lise invited me to Ikea as she was shopping for a specific item, but the only thing I brought home were these two unopened cans of Poppi soda from their dumpster. Don’t worry, I gave them a good scrub before slotting them into the refrigerator. And no, I didn’t get the bananas.
It’s hard to get ahead financially when all your money is tied up in two cans of soda.
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Of course I had to treat myself to one of their $1.25 veggie dogs. I love their combination of pickled red cabbage and crunchy onions, although the slogan “Heavenly flavors from the soil” makes it sound like they’re slathered in mud. Also, I can’t hear the word “soil” without thinking of “night soil!”
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It wouldn’t be a trip to Ikea without stopping in the cafeteria for free coffee! I brought my recently thrifted Hydroflask bottle, which meant I was able to bring a cup home to enjoy later as an iced coffee. I also brought cards and taught Lise how to play gin rummy, which is part of my masterplan to get more people to play cards with me.
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I made a huge batch of Thai red curry with tofu and mixed vegetables. I added cabbage, carrots, mushrooms and onions. Note that the veggies are all on the humble side, no need to choose pricier options when I can cobble together something healthy and delicious from cheaper ingredients.
So tasty and plentiful, with enough leftovers to share with my adult kids.
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My husband and I spent $40 on my gold band and $30 on his in 1993. A far cry from Taylor Swift’s $550,000 engagment ring. Of course, that’s a drop in the bucket for her.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
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1. Received a dog dental kit from Buy Nothing. Gave away a muffin pan.
2. Husband went to the Minnesota State Fair on senior citizen day, saving $3 on admission. He parked at my sister’s place and she drove him to and from the fair.
3. Looking into research surveys and mystery shopping, inspired by readers here and on The Frugal Girl.
4. Finished reading a library book: The Backyard Bird Chronicles by Amy Tan. Delightful.
5. Picked up a free gallon of paint for one of our bathrooms at our county’s ReUse Room. It seems to be almost full.
MB in MN,
I’ve been to the Minnesota State Fair once, many years ago, when visiting my sister in St. Paul. Its soooo much fun! All the fried food on a stick you could ask for, AND the butter sculpture!
Liz, it’s quite a place and the butter sculpture is pretty cool – actually it’s really cold!
1) Poured the extra syrup from DS’s French toast plate this am into my coffee cup and made myself a “maple latte” with instant decaf and milk from my fridge. I figure it was just as good as the one in town that would have cost me $5.50. Plus washing syrup down the drain is a travesty in my eyes…
2) Hanging out laundry. End of summer sun position means only two loads a day now, but it is still a win. Perhaps the best part for me is that I fold clothes as I take them off the line. In dryer season, clothes often sit for days in the basket waiting to be folded.
3) Said yes to a gigantic zucchini that hid from my friends in their garden. I trimmed and shredded it. Zucchini bread made yesterday, veggie burgers for the freezer on the docket for today.
4) Deskunkified the dog first with expensive enzyme cleaner which didn’t work sufficiently and secondly, with blue Dawn, hydrogen peroxide and baking soda which did the trick. (Formula/proportions found on vet site online). Washing dog towels in same today (to hang out).
5) Walking with friends for exercise and mental health adjustments and feeling lucky to have good people in my life.
Susie’s Daughter, that is an ingenious maple latte!
Thank you!! I’m going to have another today! I “using up” aging milk. Wink wink
LOL — I probably would have taken the bananas. We love banana bread.
Not gonna lie, I would’ve taken the bananas as well. I’m basically a raccoon at this point.
Your raccoon comment made me laugh out loud!
1) I brought home a pot of parsley from the compost bin at work.
2) Canned more seven more pints of blackberries.
3) My neighbor is cleaning out his workshop and gifted me 50 1-gallon pots and 11 bags of potting soil. This solves some of my budget concerns for building a raised bed, deer-proof garden for next year. I already have a plan!
4) I need to rent a car for a family trip next week. I was delighted to stack deals from my insurance provider with my travel credit card, plus points, in order to rent a midsize car for a week at less than $100 out of pocket.
5) We have fruit flies, a fact of life during canning season, it seems. Fortunately, fruit fly traps with cider vinegar, a jar, and a paper cone are free and effective!
Jenny, wow to your #3! Good neighbors make all the difference.
We had a pine tree cut down and I asked them to save me a load of wood chips. The deer must hate the feeling of the chips on their feet. They are not stealing produce from me and walk around my raised bed plot. This was totally by accident.
It’s a nice cool morning here in Pa.
1. Made scrambled eggs for breakfast. Eggs from backyard hens. Also I add puréed cauliflower to my scrambled eggs. Stretches the eggs, added veggies, and it makes the eggs fluffier. I steam a bunch of cauliflower, purée it and freeze it in ice cube trays. I store the frozen cubes in a ziplock bag in the freezer. I defrost 2-3 cubes for about 7 eggs. Mix it in before cooking. No one but me knows it’s in there! Sneaky! lol
2. Will hang out a load of laundry for solar drying.
3. Bundling errands: Thrift store, Goodwill outlet and picking up cowgirl boots ($5. I need them for a themed conference in Sept) return an item to a store.
4. Walking with a friend tonight.
5. Lunch is egg salad, again from the hens.
Julia, I just bought some cauliflower and am going to try this. Who knew? I didn’t!
I tried IKEA’s vegetarian meatballs 10 years ago, and I didn’t like them. They tasted like mud. Usually, I’m game for a good vegetarian bargain, but I assumed that the vegetarian hotdog would also taste like mud, so I steered clear. I suppose $1.25 is a reasonable risk to take.
1. I found 12 redeemable cans while I was walking around the neighborhood yesterday. I haven’t been finding as many lately. I suppose a heat wave helps!
2. There’s a plum tree in my neighborhood with a sign that asks passers by to please help themselves to plums! They even provide a long pole to help me reach the high hanging fruit. I helped myself to enough for a batch of plum jam.
3. We went to a baseball game and ate an early dinner at home beforehand. This saved us from buying expensive stadium food that isn’t very good.
4. Today is the day I take my kid to the dentist in the opposite quadrant of town. I plan to check the Fred Meyer for deals. Maybe I’ll find a free pile on the way. Wish me luck! It’s like a frugal staycation!
5. My wedding band came from an estate sale.
The veggie hotdogs are not the same as their meatballs. Hooray for free plums!
I’ll definitely try one next time I’m at IKEA.
My Ikea has veggie meatballs and plant meatballs, and the plant meatballs are much, much better than the veggie ones to my taste buds.
I also like the veggie hot dog, especially with mustard. The clerk who sold it to me asked if I was sure if I wanted it because she didn’t like it …
I was at Dollar Tree yesterday and saw Katy’s favorite Monet crackers and grabbed a box to try.
Our wedding rings came from an outlet store for a national jewelry chain. Mine was pre-owned and exactly what I wanted for far less than we had budgeted, and my husband’s wedding band cost $20 out of pocket after trading in a necklace from a previous boyfriend. (I’m not a believer that you have to get rid of jewelry from previous partners, but this was a 90’s rapper style gold rope that was not my taste at all, and I only wore it while we were dating, and then never again.)
We’re fixing up a rental house to get ready for new tenants, and doing my best to save money everywhere I can:
1. Taking advantage of 5% off with my Lowe’s card, and combining that with cash back from Swagbucks whenever I can order online.
2. We are doing most of the work ourselves (as usual), and while I am absolutely sick of painting the inside of that house, I just keep reminding myself how much $$ I’m saving. $200 worth of paint is a drop in the bucket compared to labor costs!
3. Got some drywall scraps from a neighbor instead of having to buy a half sheet when we were just shy of enough for a repair. She was happy to get it out of her garage, and I was happy to save the time it would take to go to the store.
4. The dropcloths, painters tape, and various misc supplies came from another neighbor that moved out in the spring and was giving away most of what was in their garage and laundry room.
5. Planning quick and easy dinners while we work on that house so I’m not tempted to order pizza or other delivery when I’m tired in the evenings.
Ooh . . . let me know what you think of the crackers!
I had to start dividing those crackers into two containers and hiding one so they’d last more than a day at my house. They are really yummy!
A $25 frugal fail in that I managed to gash open my thumb while trying to peel a label off a jar to reuse it. The $25 was the urgent care co-pay to get my thumb glued back together. The bandage is impressive, too.
So sorry about your thumb!
Argh, Ruby, I’m sorry to hear about your thumb. This sounds like exactly the sort of thing I might have done, especially given the number of labels I’ve been soaking off wine bottles for herbal vinegars lately. I wish you a speedy recovery, with the help of the impressive bandage.
Thank you, A. Marie and Katy. It’s a great big cut, nearly side to side across the pad of my thumb and angled under the skin. If you’re removing labels, use something blunt. I stupidly used the sharpest knife in the drawer and it cut the heck out of me when it slipped.
Oh no, that sounds like it’s a doozy (to use my Dad’s word) … Thumb cuts always seem to reopen so much when healing too. Good luck! And good advice. I’m a lazy sticker scraper as I leave a soapy dishcloth on the label for hours to get it soft.
oh OUCH, @Ruby! so sorry for your thumb cut! That’s the kind of thing I now avoid by my continual mantra when using a knife for ANYTHING other than chopping veggies on a cutting board : “Cut AWAY From Yourself! Knife Pointing in the Air!”. I had too many almost-oopses before I promised myself to stop being silly with my knives. It helps that I keep my knives really sharp so I am much more aware of the dangers.
As for labels, that too is a lesson learned – time and a long soak, scrape with a hard plastic scraper, then SOS pad (steel wool) will get most labels off. Tedious, though.
Katy, do you have a link to the red curry recipe? That is always my takeout weakness.
I just buy this curry paste and add broth and coconut milk. Of course I saute veggie and add tofu/meat. An infintely adjustable recipe as you can add whatever veggies you have on hand.
https://www.safeway.com/shop/product-details.127052293.html?productId=127052293&CMPID
I also keep the yellow and green curry pastes on hand in the fridge, really inexpensive and keeps forever.
FTFT, A. Marie’s Pickle/Herb Vinegar Factory and Butterfly Sanctuary Edition:
(1) Two neighbors have dropped off two small bags of cucumbers in the last few days, so I have reopened the pickle factory, making another quart and another pint. As soon as I’m sure the season is over, I’ll post a grand total of the quantity I’ve made this year.
(2) Having scored a gallon of red wine vinegar for $6 at my local grocery outlet on Saturday, I’m cranking out herb vinegars as fast as I can procure empty 750-ml wine bottles. My easy-peasy method: Put a small bunch of the herbs (basil, thyme, or oregano) I’m using into a bottle, and then add red wine vinegar to fill the bottle. Let this steep a few days and enjoy. No cooking required.
(3) During breaks in the pickle and vinegar production. I relax in my recliner and enjoy the bees, butterflies, hummingbirds, and goldfinches in my gardens, as previously noted. The monarchs in particular are going through this year like a strong wind; I counted ten in one of the butterfly bushes yesterday. I think I have the best kind of monarchy going here (as opposed to the worst kind, currently being attempted in DC).
(4) Am about to do yet another stir-fry, with stew beef from my 1/4 steer this time instead of the usual pork. I’ve got some snow peas, mushrooms, and corn I need to use up, as well as the usual redroot pigweed for the greens.
(5) And I’m not threatening a federal takeover of any large cities that offend me just because they vote Democratic.
What do you make with the red wine herb vinegar? My father in law makes lots of red wine vinegar every year. I have so much of it. I would love some new ideas.
1. I walked for an hour this morning, looking for the car I share with my grandson. Lots of free exercise, though completely unintentional. I never found the car. I texted grandson, but since it was early morning, he was still sleeping. Eventually I got an OMG message of apology. He had parked it on a street where we never park, because it was a street sweeping day — and he forgot to text me. I am glad he didn’t park it where it would have gotten towed!
2. Took the train to the hospital to get my annual mammogram. Free ride, free test.
3. Resisted the urge to grab lunch while out — came home and ate beef jerky, an apple and a tortilla, because I was too tired to cook.
4. Found a parking receipt — Fetch asked me to fill in some information and is now pondering whether to accept it.
5. Also found two clean plastic bags — I use these as wastebasket liners — and since we have to pay for plastic bags in our ecology-minded city, this was a good find.
OMG Argh about the car – however, the walk would have helped your attitude it you reminded yourself about the exercise benefit (which it sounds like you did). I have a few of those ARGE moments with my (adult but still young) son as he sometimes just forgets to communicate. Good thing we love them
1. We had a slight cool off here this morning so we worked in the yard and garage to get ready for hurricane seasons forecast to kick up in the coming month. It was still pretty hot so I chalked it up to a workout + a tidy/cleaning morning. I deep cleaned and organized several things that will save me money and purchases in the upcoming season.
2. Yesterday we spent the day with my Mom who needed a relaxed day. We cooked at home, played games, and visited without spending a dime. It was one of the best days we’ve had in a while. I was grateful for the time with her.
3. I’ve continued creating art from found things around the house.
4. Washing and cleaning up all of the shoes that have been worn a lot lately. I love when I clean a pair and someone asks me about my “new” shoes. Ha.
5. I’ve been making lots of franken-meals out of whatever needs to be eaten before going bad or expiration. Groceries are by far my biggest expense and I am doing all I can to creatively save in that area.
I really wanted to grab something for lunch, but I went home and ate the frozen meal that my husband had found for $2 instead. It was definitely not what I wanted, but it filled my belly. We are trying to really cut back, and my hubby already promised to get me an order of fried pickles for a treat after my library board meeting this evening. I DID NOT need to get food out twice in one day, but I am kind of proud of myself for eating something I didn’t want to. lol
I made turkey potpie and blueberry muffins last night since the weather has cooled down (I’m a much better cold weather cook). Out of 24 mini muffins and 5 big ones, there were 6 mini muffins left. I ate 3 for breakfast and gave my friend who stopped by to see me at work the other 3. I was happy to be able to share with her.
That’s really about it. But it has been a very good day all around.
Alice, your husband is a keeper, for providing fried pickles for you. And, even if the frozen meal wasn’t delicious, it did the job of filling the belly. Your muffins sound good, too.
You took “one for the team!”
If I was Taylor Swift (and boy, don’t I wish I looked that pretty!), I’d be paranoid about wearing a $550,000 ring out of the house. What if she loses it? Also, it’d be a magnet for armed robbery.
Rich people used to have fake versions of their jewelry made just for that reason, back before insurance existed.
1) mended an around-the-house dress I’ve worn constantly since finding it at a free swap. It’s a gauzy material that’s been far more durable than expected and I’m considering buying a few more new because it’s comfy and flattering, handled the heat dome and hot flashes excellently, and I’ve never seen another secondhand. I still need to spot a few small holes from blackberry thorns with Fray Check. Also figuring out the right mend for a very nice dress received from BN that I tore in a trip/fall shortly after – worth the trouble since it was brand new, classic, sells for almost $200 and brings many compliments. And, it’s time for a round of shoe repair and maintenance, so I purged and organized the drawer where sewing and shoe stuff lives.
2) clipped all the digital coupons for Kroger so we’re ready for the next grocery trip. Picked up free basil along with fresh tomatoes from a local nursery. Made rich chicken stock from a carcass, then reboiled the bones for stock to cook rice etc. with. Still making plenty of improvised meals and tapping the pantry and freezer as much as possible.
3) had the urge to thrift for a few days running and resisted even though I need bras and jeans, but finally hit the bins and main store yesterday. The bins were super productive – a few resale/consignment items, a universal remote that might replace our unrepairably hinky one, a beautiful wool/cashmere coat in perfect condition for under $3, Sferra pillowcases, a few tools needed to work on the house, a jeweler’s hammer for my son, Birkenstock sandals in a style I want to try for a dollar, an apparently new nightgown, a very good oxford buttondown in my husband’s new size, and a cute sleeper for my grandson. These last two are going to need a little Oxyclean, but I’m confident about it. At the main store, incontinence supplies for a neighbor for $2/package, a bra I needed (new in package), and a cushy pair of “soft pants” for the fall from the $1.49 rack, since one of mine is losing its structural integrity.
4) My kitchen fertilizers – dilute milk and fermented rice water – have done wonders for my houseplants, now outside in summer camp, and the fig tree and berries. The fig tree, which is mature, is at least two feet taller than previous years. I’m going to propagate the tips for friends before wrapping it up this fall.
5) I didn’t waste tax dollars on transatlantic calls begging the Nobel committee for a cookie.
Mati –that is an amazing haul from your day’s thrifting!
Free Pile Jackpot! To really appreciate my surprise you have to realize that my neighborhood (country road) is decidly NON-Schwanky. (There’s a historic district two villages over where some people do have money, but this wasn’t there.) I spotted a large ottoman by the side of the road and stopped to check it out because I’ve been wanting to get rid of the coffee table in my small living room and needed something to set a tray on. Thinking it couldn’t be leather but might pass in the short run, I pulled up and — well, it sure looked and felt like leather, andwas in really good shape too!
I turned it over to find a tag from a very expensive furniture store in the area, and a manufacturer’s tag: Whittemore-Sherrill. I looked up the brand (once I had it safely home in my living room that is) and it’s a hand-sewn premium leather piece–you can’t find a price online, it’s that kind of premium.
I’m still scratching my head how it ended up on my road. And in my living room. Looking extremely swell.
@Cynthia, ya gotta be careful! you might be ‘gentrifying’ your neighbourhood with this uppity furniture! Well done – great manifesting!
1. Combined errands: took daughter to a class, went to Goodwill (made a donation and purchased some items), went to Walmart and visited my mother-in-law.
2. It rained, yay for free water on the garden!
3. Bought clearance bread.
4. Sewed up a tear in a pair of my sons’ work jeans. Not the best job, but it’ll do.
5. Picked a few more cherry tomatoes.
Katy….how did you get those cans??
Emoter– i hadn’t thought of it but yes, this seems like manifesting. Makes me wonder what else I can get up to…
My nieghborhood is up and coming. I’ve been here 20 years this month and for the first time this year there are no visible dead appliances or bathroom fixtures displayed in anyone’ yard (on my road; the next one up has one incorrigible property that would be condemned if we had zoning, which we don’t), and the number of defunct automobiles continues to decline.
I meant to post this above…
And once again, I get “Emoter”… I’m going to start typing Eco-Teri with a hyphen and maybe that will work.
Well, if Emoter were a real word it might make more sense!? Anyway, I emote a tonne, so it isn’t a ‘wrong’ label!
As for manifesting, I kind of think it is like our experience when we get a new-to-us car … suddenly we notice all the other cars of that make that are on the road. I suspect when I consciously manifest (or my daughter asks me to find something) my brain tucks that away in the BOLO chamber. So I am primed to notice the physical outline of the thing. It does work far more often than makes logical sense, though…
For those of you ladies who are trying to get labels off jars please try Goo Be Gone. Leave it on for awhile and it should come off easy. No more cut fingers. Works fantastic! Love this site.
We got our gold bands for $50 from Service Merchandise in 1993. Hubby’s aunt worked there so she got them for us with her 30% off discount.
I thought I’d talk about my $4.99 Costco chicken. I bought the chicken and took all the meat off the bones as soon as I got home. It’s easier to do when it’s still hot.
1. First night was chicken with baked potato and canned corn.
2. Next evening was chicken Alfredo. Alfredo sauce was jarred ($1 clearance) fettuccine was 50 cents clearance. With half a can of clearance corn and a half can of clearance green beans. ($1 total)
3. Tomorrow night is chicken pot pie. Potatoes were $2.99 5 lb. I only used about 1 pound. And I made my own pot pie noodles. (Flour, oil, milk, 1 egg from my hens and baking powder) I had more noodles than I needed so I put the rest in my dehydrator. I’ll let you know how that turns out.
4. I put the chicken carcass in the crock pot and made a lot of broth. Some went into the pot pie.
5. I used some of the broth to make chicken corn noodle soup. Noddles were free from a friend, corn was a 1/2 can of 50 cents canned corn.
6. More broth will be turned into chicken and wild rice w mushrooms soup (dehydrated mushrooms I made from clearance mushrooms.)
We are a family of three so these meals will go a long way for us. I also made croutons from a $1 clearance loaf of store made Italian bread to serve with Costco romaine lettuce.
Tiny Frugal things
1. Found 35 cents in the coin return at school in the vending machines.
2. Husband sprayed the house instead of calling the exterminator.
3. Husband bought wheel bearing to get same replaced on my car. I have a Hyundai with 49K miles. I don’t think this would have gone out on a Toyota at this point. Toyota will be my next car.
4. Found a jug of iced tea in the fridge at work to refill my cup. I get thirsty teaching.
5. Attended a free event sponsored by a drug company. Had a nice seafood dinner. Enough leftovers for 2 more meals.
1. After perusing a variety of online and book versions of pickled peppers, I cobbled a process that sounded reasonable to my tastes and energy level. Soaked peppers overnight in a brine of pickling salt and water. In the morning I peeled a few of my garlic cloves, created a pepper juice of vinegar and water and a titch of sugar, sprinkled some mustard seeds in the bottom of the jars. Then I rinsed the brine soaked peppers, stuffed them into the jars, filled the jars with pepper juice and stuck them in my pressure canner (which I also use as a BWB canner).
As I was trying to put a jar of just-juice in, after filling the canner, I noticed some mustard seeds floating around – the bottom of a jar had broken off. ARGH. Standard in my world of reused jars but annoying as it was a newish jar. Anyway, the pickles are now cooling on the counter and one more thing ticked off my to-do list.
2. I have sorted most of the box of prune plums. Both of my sons prefer them on the firm/sour side (unlike me!) so I have made a box up for each of them. The rest will be halved and dehydrated, as they are spectacular that way.
I also have a big box (and more on the tree) of the freestone purple plums that aren’t Italian prune plums – still delicious, just not quite as delicious. I will sort through that to pull out any questionable ones, set some out for dehydrating, and perhaps assemble another crumble or put some in the freezer for future crumbles.
3. Now that I have done a ‘trial run’ of the canning system, I feel pretty confident about getting the peaches canned. I got a good deal on a 20 pound box, now I need a playlist and some energy – they are almost perfectly ripe. I don’t have the energy right now and my grandbaby has his first birthday tomorrow, so I am going to shove the peaches into the downstairs fridge until after the party.
4. I got to donate blood again. We don’t get the perks you folk are sharing (no gift cards or tee-shirts), however I have become much more willing to both chow down on the goodies and to take some away for later. Oreo cookies, bags of chips, juices and granola bars are the usual fare, I came home with a couple of bags of chips, some 2 packs of oreos, a bottle of water for my stash, and a chocolate chip cookie. I have been taking iron and was pleased that my haemoglobin is up from last time – I have been rejected a couple of times for it being too low.
5. Saved on blowing it at Costco by asking #1 son to pick up 5 items for me when he was doing a run. Those discount rotisserie chickens are such a deal, but not so much if I drop a couple of hundred dollars on incidentals. (I haven’t been to Costco for a while mostly due to the distance, but partially due to my tendency to overstock. I do miss the deals on things I use regularly, but even so I am ahead of the game, I think).
6. I continue to use my library and libby – am reading a book every couple of days, sometimes I go through one a day, so having them ‘free’ is fabulous. Our library is pretty awesome, with a puzzle section, seed section, and community resource section put in this year. They get a lot of turnover. I rarely peruse the shelves (although I am doing more of that lately, huh) as our librarians put out a tempting display of suggestions that usually gives me more than enough new stuff, added to what I have put on hold. I recently heard a rumour that our libraries might be coming under some financial threat from their funders, so now I need to research how they actually are funded; I think much of it comes from municipal levies but who sets the level?