Five Tiny Frugal Things
by Katy on November 14, 2024 · 42 comments
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My neighbor got her furnace replaced and returned the space heater that we’d lent to her. She also gave us two homemade “Crumbl” style cookies that were a meal in themselves. I rarely bake cookies, so this was a special treat. A smart blogger would’ve photographed the cookies. I did not.
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I took my mother out to run errands yesterday and convinced her that she had time to pop into the library for a replacement library card. She recently purchased her first ever Kindle and is looking forward to getting back into the habit of reading. The librarian took the time to explain the many digital benefits of her card, such as using Libby.com and I anticipate many ebooks are in her future!
She also treated me to lunch. Thanks, mom!
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I took my long detail shopping list to Winco Foods to make sure I’d hit the $125 barrier to qualify for a “free turkey” with purchase. It turn out that the promotion doesn’t actually begin until November 18th. Oops . . .
I still got six bags of groceries for $103, which included a case of canned cat food and multiple sale items.
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My husband and I stopped into the Franz Bakery outlet and picked up two sleeves of bagel, two loaves of marble rye and two enormous commercially packaged loaves of caraway rye bread for ten dollars.
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I didn’t buy a vulgar gold plated apartment in the sky.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 42 comments… read them below or add one }
In my opinion, the best toast is rye toast. I recently made a loaf of pickled sourdough rye to accompany a dish of kapusniak, Polish sauerkraut soup. Yum.
Wow, nice haul from the bakery outlet!
1. Made two loaves of Ina Garten’s honey white bread. I’ve found this to be a great one for both toasted and plain bread when we need a break from whole wheat bread. And it’s so easy to slice with our serrated knife, which isn’t always the case when I bake my own bread.
2. Looked at my stash of plain stationery paper (mostly received from Buy Nothing) and realized I had enough to last beyond my lifetime, so I recycled all my various scrap pieces of paper, busted out my paper-cutter, and cut the nice stationery sheets into notepaper. Our desktop slot organizer looks much neater, and the matching aspect of the paper (size AND color!) soothes my OCD-leaning soul.
3. Found some particularly good buys at the discount food store: 5 lbs. of potatoes for $1.99; orange and yellow bell peppers .99 each; and butter lettuce $1.00/head.
4. Saw an empty plastic bag smushed in the parking lot and brought it home to use as a dog poop bag.
5. Used the chopped-up chocolate bars left over from Halloween in homemade banana bread.
1. Went to a conference this morning and took advantage of the free coffee and breakfast. It was pretty good too!
2. Spent last night prepping for a little shindig this Friday and learned how to make 1-hour dinner rolls and pickled onions. I’m so satisfied learning how to make these things from scratch, I love a kitchen project! I also spent an entire episode of reality TV peeling and cutting two butternut squashes, which I hated but could not justify paying for the pre-cut ones.
3. Absolutely BURNING through Libby books this week.
4. Heat is still off. It’s chilly but I’m loving it!
5. I did not book an impulse trip to another country, although I desperately wanted to….that counts, right??
Crumbl is my guilty pleasure, but I also figured out how to make their pink almond sugar cookies at home. It’s about 50c a cookie to make at home (even as big as they serve them), versus the $5 they charge. Which kind did your neighbor make, Katy?
Hi Andrea, would love it if you can share the recipe! Thanks!
you betcha! https://cookingwithkarli.com/crumbl-sugar-cookies/
It was a frosted sugar cookie — very sweet! I just returned her cute bag with a couple of Trader Joe’s Lebkuchen cookies.
1. DH found a quarter and a dime while out walking.
2. Washing and reusing aluminum foil. Same with food storage bags.
3. Our adult kids have agreed with our plan to not exchange gifts this Christmas and going forward. We all are lucky enough to have everything we need or want. We will still give $$$ to each of our four grandchildren and three of them are still in school. The fourth one has graduated college but can only find part time work in her field so they can use it.
4. DH reported to me that hiking the Appalachian Trail has shown him how little he needs to get by.
5. We’re in the process of shopping for new car/house insurance to see if we can save some money.
Cookies from someone else are perfect because then you can’t eat the whole batch (says she who would eat the whole batch if she made them herself.)
Cookies are my weakness!
Everything is my weakness. I rarely makes cookies anymore as I dislike the fussiness of the multiple batches. Plus, trying to to avoid the “Cookies — it’s what’s for dinner” syndrome.
And when you don’t have a bunch of hungry children to feed the cookies to, there are SO MANY available for the adult (me) to eat.
Cookies for dinner is an experience that probably is very good in the moment, but a slightly regretful choice later. Heh,
It’s no favor to “Future Katy!”
1. Turned on the heat this morning for the first time since early April. The weather in Greater Boston has been quite mild this Fall but the house was 62 when I got up this morning. I might be able to turn it down this weekend when it gets back to the 60s.
2. I keep checking my Southwest flights for January and the return trip dropped by $35 per person. I “changed” it to the exact same flight and now each of us has $35 in travel credit in our RR accounts.
3. I purchased our Thanksgiving turkey breast when the price dropped to $1.29/pound. No one likes dark meat but me so I don’t bother with a whole turkey.
4. Purchased a pair of Croc “slippers” on-line – I expected the standard, supportive Croc sole but these slippers have a thin fabric sole and that is it. I was very disappointed and sent them back, with free return shipping. One star review.
5. My goal was not to buy any new Christmas decor but I caved then I saw the felted wool holly wreaths at Trader Joe’s – $16.99. I purchased one for over the sink and I think its charming.
@MEM you’re a stronger person than I am. You can pry my dark meat out of my cold dead hands. I could live on dark meat sandwiches w/mayo or hot turkey sandwiches.
Selena, I too am on the dark (meat) side. I swear that the only reason turkeys have white meat is for turkey salad on the Saturday after T’giving.
@MEM, I am reminded of momlife_comics on instagram – she started an “Eat the Peach” chant that many of us took to heart – essentially, moms so often leave the last peach for the kids (or husbands) and she encourages us to remember that we deserve them, too… As an avowed dark meat loving (hi @Selena and @A. Marie) I just wanna encourage you to ‘eat the peach’ (or Turkey Leg) this Thanksgiving…. I do get the ‘not another whole turkey’ issue, although for me it is one of my life joys, a roasted turkey dinner….our Canadian Thanksgiving meal this year, with fewer people and a vegetarian, had us eating roast chicken, which was good but……
1. Sold a dryer on Marketplace and another Armoire. This one is pine. That makes a total of $1600 so far of items from the River house Reno that we can’t use.
2. I finally received a diamond ring back from Real Real that didn’t sell. Also returned was a pair of earring. I took them to the Gold/ Silver melt shop and received $400 dollars than if I had sold them. I am NOT impressed by RealReal.
3. One of my last EGO purchases in 2021 was a consignment Gucci large backpack purse. The back strap is coming undone which is ridiculous for the few times I have used it. I was just going to throw it on Poshmark for a lowball price. Nobody bit. Then I researched repair possibilities and sent it off to Rago Brothers in New Jersey. $90 to fix. Once I get it back I will put it back on Poshmark with a higher price tag.
4. I found Larabars on sale for 1.95 for 6. There is healthy nutrition in these babies. Now my breakfast will be a little discount cheese, Milk tea and a Larabar. Total: under .50 for breakfast.
5. Frugal Fail: I left my yogurt in the instapot accidentally over night. drat! I had to toss.
In my first reading of your entry, I read that you found labradors on sale, $1.95 for six.
@Lindsey LOL – $1.95 for six Labradors would not be considered long term frugal I don’t think.
I loathe The Real Real – once I got a check from them for $2.10
PSA – they drop the price on your items constantly AND send out coupons and discounts that only take from YOUR side of the commission. Awful, do not bother with them!!!
So right!
And they take FOREVER TO PROCESS.
Mary Ann,
Just curious, but why did you have to throw out yogurt that sat in the instant pot overnight? It was likely still fine, just a bit more sour. Yogurt has been used since ancient times to preserve milk in the absence of refrigeration.
Of course, if it smelled or looked off, throwing it out was the right thing to do.
I would get rid of grocery store fruity or flavored yogurt if it sat out overnight, but not plain yogurt, whether store bought or homemade.
Cookies — yum! And that is some very fine looking bread you snagged.
1. Wore an awesome secondhand outfit today from head to toe — socks and under things were conventionally purchased but done so on sale or clearance.
2. Used Katy’s idea of turning a canvas dropcloth into a privacy screen in a problematic corner of our backyard. (Our neighbor has an aggressive dog that charges our fence in that spot.) Only $27 at Harbor Freight for the materials and a couple of hours of fiddling with things to get it to work.
3. Our local grocery store does a $20 coupon if you spend $60 a week for the six weeks leading up to Thanksgiving. For the first time ever, I have not spent enough to qualify, due to a concentrated effort to spend less.
Sometimes three is all you got!
Oh no, bad timing indeed! Will go go back to Winco and spend 125$ to get the free turkey?
I just discovered that if someone posts a new comment while I’m typing from my phone, it will reload the page and erase all I wrote so I’m typing this third try in another app!
1. I recently joined a local coop selling mainly food. You pay an admission fee, and then get the food at cost + a fee for the shop rent. Each member is expected to work 2 hours per month in a defined role (cashier, orders, cleaning etc). I joined the IT team and had my first training this morning. I’m super excited and it’s a great way to meet people with shared values.
2. My BF refurbished an old laptop for me to use for the Coop IT work
3. I’m cooking meals from the pantry and very full freezers
4. I declined buying 1/4 large calf from my farmer neighbor. He sells amazing meat but my freezers won’t have it
5. I just turned the heater on too, as we’re getting to freezing temperatures outside – the wood stove can’t keep up anymore
All that bread looks really good. What a great deal.
1. I used a $5 off coupon at the pet store for a birthday toy for my dog.
2. I used a coupon for a free sandwich at Arby’s.
3. I found a very handy handyman who doesn’t charge a lot to fix things around the house.
4. I made a huge pot of minestrone soup. We had it for lunch today. We’ll see how long it takes to eat it all.
5. I returned a can of spray paint I was planning to use to paint some handrail hardware. I decided to keep them in their original color. I soaked them in warm water and scraped the bits of paint off them with a used up gift card.
Jill A – Re: Used up gift card as scraper: I had read a “what to do with the little square plastic tabs that come on bakery bags” list. It recommended to save them to scrape the grease off kitchen cupboards, the place by the handles that builds up gunk.
I found that idea a bit too much, but it works! I have two cut-in-half credit cards and a couple of tabs to properly clean my cupboards soon.
Those tabs also are great for tagging electronic cords so you can figure out which cord plugs into what part when moving things around.
1. I sold $40 worth of baby clothes yesterday for my son and daughter-in-law.
2. I volunteered at community garden and came home with a few free persimmons.
3. Worked today and brought home a free apple and 5 mini chocolate bars.
4. Made very nice enchiladas last night. The recipe called for spinach but I substituted swiss chard from my back yard. I thought it tasted better than the spinach (I’ve made the recipe before)
5. Did a Pinecone survey. I’ve been slack on these and am trying to do them again.
1. I’m listening to Life’s Too Short by Abby Jimenez. I digitally borrowed it from the library.
2. I joined an effort to make hats for those that stay at our local homeless shelter. It started as an effort to use up an overabundance of red yarn. It is fun to see the combinations that we are coming up with to use stash yarn. I have plenty of red and other colors of yarn to use.
3. A friend is joining me this morning for a walk.
4. I’ll meet up with another friend, at her house, this afternoon.
5. I’ll eat leftover GF chicken noodle soup for lunch with GF cornbread.
1. Opened a checking account at a credit union. They allow you to use your debit card at any ATM and they will reimburse you for any ATM fees that may be charged. Unlike the neighborhood bank, whose ATM is always broken and never stays fixed. Bye-bye PNC Bank!
2. Grabbed up some Disney princess story books when they were put on Clearance. I know just the right little princess who will get these at Christmas.
4. Put away the Halloween T-shirts for another year.
5. Got out my sweaters and cold-weather clothing and put them in my bedroom closet. Transferred summer clothing to the closet for seldom-worn apparel.
First, Katy, I’m so glad that Su Mama is out and about with you again!
Now, FTFT, Mostly Cooking Edition:
(1) This week’s best effort so far was another of my “evening at the improv” soups. I was going to use the chicken stock I made on Monday in a chicken noodle soup with dill, but Ms. Bestest Neighbor gave me some rosemary clippings from her plant, so I used some of the rosemary in a chicken-and-mixed-veg soup that included half of a cooked Honeynut squash. The squash dissolved beautifully into the soup. I added some orzo for bulk.
(2) I’m having dinner with two widowed friends tonight, and my contribution will be “Not My Mother’s Meatloaf”–a mashup of recipes from the Lodge Cast Iron Cookbook and the Dinosaur BBQ Cookbook. One of the two friends tonight not only is an excellent cook herself but copyedited the Dinosaur BBQ Cookbook, and I’ll be interested to hear what she thinks of this meatloaf. (Among other things, it includes two ingredients my own beloved but domestically challenged mother would never have dreamed of putting in meatloaf: Worcestershire sauce and BBQ sauce. Hence my name for it.)
(3) The ground beef for the meatloaf came from my 1/4 steer, and the beef/pork/veal meatloaf mix was bought Reduced for Quick Sale at Tops at a mind-boggling discount.
(4) Our hostess (another excellent cook) and our copyeditor friend will be taking care of the rest of the dinner. I’m looking forward to it!
(5) And one naughty note: I offered to supply the wine for dinner. Since we will inevitably be discussing the election (our copyeditor friend is, among her many accomplishments, a pillar of the local League of Women Voters), I decided in looking over the available reds that 19 Crimes cabernet sauvignon would be an excellent choice. 🙂 (It was also on sale, which helped.)
Love you sneaking in the 19 Crimes wine!
Only 19 Crimes? Not 34?
Here’s what my favorite clerk at my local liquor store said when I told her where I’d be taking the wine: “Only 19? I’m sorry it’s not 500!” My kinda gal!
1. I made a batch of pumpkin muffins with some of the pumpkin I cooked. 4 went to my neighbors, 4 went to the lady I help, 4 went to my son, 6 are going to my parents and 6 for us. The rest Hubby took to work.
2. I made a cardnial ornament at the library.
3. I picked up 12 books from the library. 2 for me the rest are for the lady I help. She loves looking at animal pictures so I got several National Geographic ones for her. They have been a hit. I will get different ones this weekend.
4. I also brought a puzzle from the library that was free to do with the lady I help. It was 300 hundred pieces so just the right size for her. The pieces are larger to make it easier. I will be giving to my dad this weekend.
5. I pulled out colored pencils and adult coloring books to do with her too. They were all from Covid. Her daughter has ordered several puzzles, games, books and sticker/puzzle books for us to do together. She has spent a small fortune. I told her that I can get puzzles and books free from the library for us to do.
6. Hubby went to a seminar 15 minutes from the house. He got breakfast and lunch for free. He brought home 1/2 of his lunch.
I get Pepperidge Farm, Sara Lee, Entenmanns and Thomas’ bread/bagel/bakery products at my local Dollar Tree for $1.25! They are always within the “sell by”, but too close to that date for grocery store to keep on shelf.
Saved 3 more brownish bananas from the office trash! Into my smoothie/muffin freezer stash they go!
There was a meeting with luncheon at work this week with a LOT of leftovers from a local BBQ place – so we got free lunch for 2 days, and I was able to take home some Pulled pork, and baked beans.
Also took home the 3 bagels, 2 muffins, and tub of cream cheese from Dunkin that were left from same meeting. (Since it is Friday, they were going to toss them!)
Cheryl, I’m so happy to hear about the food you rescued. Before I retired five years ago, I was the only one in my department who took leftovers home from events. It burns my biscuits when perfectly good food goes to waste.
Office manager constantly just tossing food on friday afternoons without even asking if anyone wants it….really frustrating. So, I try to get it first LOL!
I miss Entenmann’s outlets. Wednesdays was $1 and I woould stock up. And on your birthday you would get a free cake.
Ahhhh, Entenmanns……we used to bring some back home in our suitcases after my family moved from Long Island, before they went national.
1. Sold a beautiful red leather purse that I had thrifted, made about $25. The buyer was a senior who lives about 5 minutes away, we had a lovely conversation about downsizing, etc.
2. Had my annual mammogram at the local hospital, free as always.
3. Saved 3 exterior doors that were removed during the construction of our addition, I will list on marketplace.
4. Had several prescriptions filled, no cost as they are covered by my insurance.
5. Sold an “ugly Christmas” sweater for $20. My step mother had given it to me years ago, and I wore it when I worked in a school. These seem to be very popular with people who work with children.
6. DH is making beautiful cutting boards from scrap wood, we will sell them at a friend’s art show/sale in December. Because I work as her cashier, there will be no entrance fee for his items.
7. DH is also building a frame for the mirror in our primary bath in our new addition. It will be made of cherry, to match the vanity he also built (I know I have mentioned it before, but he did an amazing job, it’s gorgeous).