Five Tiny Frugal Things
by Katy on December 14, 2024 · 32 comments
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I sold the KLM ceramic Amsterdam houses for $50 a couple hours after listing them on eBay. This may sound like a win, but it’s actually a sign that I underpriced them. Oh well, still not too shabby considering that I paid $4.58 for the pair of them.
Of course I packaged them in a random used box, complete with scavenged bubble wrap.
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My father gave me a tour of the tool kit he received as a Jewish confirmation gift 75 years ago. I remember using these tools as a kid and my father continues to use them on a regular basis. (It’s quite ingenious, sort of like a precursor to the Leatherman.) Although the leather case is sadly now fragile, the tools themselves are still in excellent condition.
Imagine if all consumer goods were of this same quality.
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I’ve done essentially no Christmas shopping, although I do have some idea of what I want to get for the people on my gift list. We’ve winnowed down who we exchange gifts with through the years, which helps. Mostly I give consumables, which gets around my “buy nothing new” edict, plus I like that my gifts won’t clutter up people’s homes.
I did ask for one specific item on my Buy Nothing group and will be picking that up on Monday for my son. It rhymes with schmortar and schmestle and I think he’ll really enjoy having one to grind up his own spices.
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I’ve had two nights in a row of lumpia for dinner, thanks to my friend Rosalie. Mmm . . .
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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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{ 32 comments… read them below or add one }
That was a quick turnaround. If you did underprice at least you made someone’s day brighter.
1. My mom gave me some frozen chicken breasts that she didn’t want. I plan to make kibble topper for my dog with it. If I decide it is cheaper than buying the cans of Kirkland dog food than I will do it more often.
2. I held off on buying dry dog food until I found a better deal. It will go on sale tomorrow at Meijer for 20% off. Which is 10% better than the pet store.
3. I also didn’t buy potatoes last time I was at Meijer as well as a couple other items hoping for a sale closer to Christmas. Tomorrow’s flyer has them at $1.50 for a 5 lb bag.
4. I stopped into an estate sale yesterday and picked up several useful items including 3 crystal wine glasses to replace the ones I keep breaking and some silicone lids that fit my Pyrex storage bowls.
5. I had a wonderful hour long phone call with my sister in another state. Hooray for free long distance calls.
Bad enough long distance rates your #5. Back in the 1980’s, an area near us (talking miles, same state) got charged for any call outside their exchange. Not long distance rates but a per minute. Calling the school to report a sick kid cost money. The call to order pizza cost money. It took the phone company being bought out before it changed.
1. Prepared a pen of cattle for market Monday. With the tangerine menace taking office soon, I’d prefer to have the money on hand. Ordinarily, I would hold them until January, but that feels like a significant risk right now. That ding-dong could throw the entire market off the rails with his crazy policies and I don’t want to be caught up in it. The cattle will most likely go to wheat country to be grazed out over the winter. I’m definitely in the minority of cattlemen who feel that way. I’m cool with being contrarian!
2.Bought some very reasonable hay off marketplace from a neighbor kid. Using my antique hay hook to buck bales. It was forged by a blacksmith and I picked it up from a farm sale last year. One of those well crafted tools that just feels good in your hands. (It is essentially a pirate hook with a handle. I use it to pull bales down from the large stack inside the barn. Then, I load them in a wheel barrel and place in outdoor hay feeders for the calves.) I built the hay feeders out of free, reclaimed materials. The feeders keep the hay clean and dry while preventing the calves from scattering the hay, laying on it, and soiling it.
3. Sold a beer bucket on ebay. It came out of the attic of our old house. I shipped it in used packaging.
4. Our hens are laying a bit better, which is nice. Our garden is finished until spring.
5. Wearing old clothes and eating from our freezer. We will get our tree up eventually!
Katy, your dad’s tool kit is wonderful.
The KLM houses are so cute. I looked them up online and was intrigued by how often they are sold still sealed. Do people really want 50-year-old unopened gin? 😀
Katy, your time is worth something, too. Maybe those are two rare houses, who knows? You wouldn’t want to spend hours researching KLM houses. Well, I would but I’m weird.
1. I made cupcakes for DD’s birthday, from scratch. No store/bakery bought baked goods for us.
2. Yesterday I walked to a friend’s house for a nice visit. When it is cold and gray my walking motivation can use a boost. On Tuesday I walked to PT for the first time. On Wednesday I walked to my haircut appointment. On Thursday I walked to Giant to pick up the items that were free after redeeming points. This morning we walked to Walgreens to pick up an Rx.
3. I went to Costco and returned a couple of items. I stuck to the list and only purchased food items on my list. I also walked around the corner at the shopping center, to Aldi, to buy $3/# butter and salad.
4. My SIL challenged me to eat more legumes. I have been adding them to salads and pasta since then. I got off track on eating them regularly when some spicy beans caused me GI distress at the end of October.
5. I had some sweet potatoes that looked like they wouldn’t be good much longer. I put them in the Instant Pot and pressure cooked them. I like them cooked that way.
I don’t think I’ve IP’d sweet potatoes except for soup. Do you cook them with the skin on? What do you like most about the result? Thanks!
FTFT, Winter and Holiday Stuff Edition:
(1) It’s been very cold here the last two days–but at least the streets are dry and walkable. So I sallied forth this morning for as long a walk as I could manage, and came home not only well-exercised but with $1.75 in can/bottle deposits and another 50 cents in change. I seem to be on a roll with change.
(2) Because it is so cold, and because my oven (on a quick inspection) was dirtier than I realized, I’m running the self-cleaning cycle in the oven as I write. Not only will this clear the decks for my traditional Xmas Eve dinner for the Bestest Neighbors and NDN (the Two Fat Ladies’ recipe for “A.N.’s Slow Shoulder of Lamb” will ride again), but the self-cleaning cycle contributes quite a bit to warmth in the house. Right now, the furnace is set at 64 F, but it’s 75 in the kitchen and environs!
(3) And speaking of lamb shoulder, I’ve just placed my order for same with one of the best meat departments in town–which happens to be in the back of what looks like an unassuming little bodega on the Nort’ Side (as old-timers here call the area just north of downtown). Even I do a splurge or two at the holidays.
(4) I’m almost finished with wrapping presents, and will be moving on soon to this year’s Martha Stewart calendar for the BNs. I’m also giving them an early Martha-themed present–a party pack of toothpicks, napkins, etc., to be used at Dr. BN’s combined Chanukah latke party and 88th birthday party on the 22nd. (I found this pack at a Thrifty Shopper a while ago.)
(5) And last night, the BNs and I attended the lovely annual carol party given by former neighbors of ours. (We’ve almost forgiven them for moving off the street, but we must admit that their current house is perfect for their present needs.) At my request, among the first carols we sang was one I’ve learned at this party over the years, “Thou Who Wast Rich.” I can’t help wondering what the incoming administration would make of the first two lines: “Thou who wast rich beyond all splendor,/All for love’s sake becamest poor.”
A.Marie,
“For love’s sake,” is a foreign concept to the incoming clown and his circus of cabinet members, I’m afraid.
Fasten your seatbelts come Inauguration Day; it’s going to be a bumpy ride!
It will be a butt ugly ride, particularly for those that voted to bring the clown and his circus to town. Most I know who voted for him will really struggle. For some, it doesn’t matter who is in office if you can’t manage your finances and/or didn’t plan well for retirement. Those in my circle will likely pay higher prices but resist, survive, and thrive is what we’ll do.
I have a hankering for lamb and have been watching Aldi for shoulders. If nothing happens before Christmas, we do have a frozen duck. I bought that weeks ago at Aldi, which is now the only place nearby that has duck.
Best meat/butcher shops are off the beaten path. We buy 95% of our meats from such a place. Better half is a good cook and a savvy shopper so the other 5% are typically butcher’s specials. Like a package of three 12 oz Angus rib-eyes for $30. Two were individually packaged for later meals. All three were superb. Do you watch for sales at your bodega? Our butcher shop runs some awesome sales. Five pounds at a time or individual. They do limit how many and I don’t blame them.
1. I went to the same place where I’d seen 99-cent a square foot plank flooring; a few weeks ago, they said they didn’t have enough for my job but would likely have some more in later. Today they claimed it was gone forever, and would I like to see some other ones? I thanked them, said no, and left.
2. Driving down the same road, I saw a place that advertised flooring and even cabinet hardware. The knobs in my bathroom are coming unscrewed and are really looking bad (they were original fixtures in my 1964 house). Saw some I liked and the lady said she’d get them priced for me. Then she said they’re usually $3 to $7 each. For
…16 knobs? That is a bit steep for this frugal gal. So I left and went down the same road and there was a discount place advertising hardware. Found em! Two packages for a bit over $10 each. More than Habitat would charge but I haven’t found any there and I’ve been looking for many months. Ditto, Ollie’s Outlet and other cheapo places.
3. This week, I got stood up to go to a Christmas party. So to cheer myself up, I got out the old artificial Christmas tree. Anyone remember Pier One Imports’ Peppermint Pier holiday stuff? The year I got my driver’s license and was driving all over town just for fun, I saw it and told Mom. She was ready to ditch the aluminum tree so she went out to look and yes, this one really did look real! So we got it and used it from then on out; when my folks died, I brought it home. Along with the ornaments. Cost of putting up the tree: zero.
4. Alas, I don’t recall how we did the tree lights and I needed some extension cords so their plugs would reach the outlet. Went to the thrift store and got brand-new ones for $1.50 each. (I’m not figuring the cost into the cost of putting up the Christmas tree bc those cords will be used throughout the year. )
5. Shhhh! Can we say regifting, boys and girls? Staying out of the stores and using gift wrap, bows and gift bags I saved from prior holidays.
1. Temperature soared and, which always happens when we get in the 20s during the winter, it snowed and snowed and snowed. A foot later, with the wind blowing a lot of it in front of the garage, we could not get out of the garage. Suddenly we get a call from the neighbor across the street. Her former boyfriend was plowing her driveway and was worried about us and our other 85-year-old widow neighbor. She was calling to see if we would mind if be plowed our driveway, no charge. Yes, please! It cost us about $100 if we have to hire someone.
2. Went to a 50th wedding anniversary shindig for a college friend. Fully catered, with to-go boxes packed by the catering staff for everyone!
3. A friend gifted me a magazine subscription for Christmas. It is one I love and was free for her because it was one of those deals where you can give a free year of the magazine to someone if you re-up your own subscription. Love the magazine and love that it cost her zero!
4. We each do that silly Holiday gas station December daily contest and so far have won something almost every day, usually Reese’s cups or pop. Amazing how you get a little cheerful charge for winning a 99 cent pop!
5. We give a gift card to our wonderful postman and our mail delivery woman. They went on sale for 4X gas points so we now have some money off on future gas purchases.
Five Frugal Things
1. Attended a light up the park that we have been going to since our kids were really little. Hot cider, cookies, and best of all, youngest son (23) and wife came. Made a small donation for the Friends of The Park.
2. Enrolled in the ACA, as our retirement income is less, so qualified this year. Better than we had and SO much cheaper.
3. Will follow up with State of Fl on Monday, as I am entitled to a health insurance supplement (I think $1440 for the year?) and despite filling out forms and hoop jumping, can’t seem to get the monthly supplement.
4. Helped my husband pick up his truck which needed warranty work right before his warranty was about to run out. Had we waited another couple months to get the sound that I can’t hear fixed, we would have had to pay for it.
5. Visiting oldest son and DIL in Wyoming after Christmas and will drive, so we can bring their gifts instead of shipping.
So smart to pay attention to when the warranty was about to expire!
1. My neighbor set out two perfect sugar pumpkins on her stoop. Their beauty leads me to believe that they lived a cushy life as Thanksgiving decor. They’re currently roasting in my oven destined for pie, and their washed seeds are hanging out on a tea towel to be crisped up later.
2. Washed and prepped lettuce for easy salads during the week.
3. Took my dog for a long walk past a fancy coffee place. Paused and acknowledged its appeal. Came home and made my own coffee, which I jazzed up with cinnamon and maple syrup.
4. Spatchcocked two (sale) chickens for a family dinner and saved the backbones in my freezer to make stock.
5. Saved the zipper that fell off my son’s thrifted coat, then handed it to my husband and son with instructions to stop by the shoemaker on their way to the subway. This is a cheap and easy repair for the shoemaker and will save both my son’s already frugal winter coat and my hands from having to use the pliers.
So smart to repair your son’s coat!
Thank you! According to the shoemaker, the zipper was a mismatch from a previous repair attempt. This is probably why the coat was at the thrift shop! It is now repaired and my son has a really nice coat for a fraction of what it would normally cost.
Those tools are beautiful.
1. We bought a long-searched-for bed frame on FB marketplace. The photo caught my eye and then I saw that the seller was someone I knew which made me happy to purchase it. I had been somewhat hesitant to buy a bed frame from a complete stranger (just me being weird).
2. Bought a gallon of milk on Flashfood for 99 cents!
3. Sold dressmaking tools my mother had used and then was done with. Listed a few more things.
4. Mended small flaws in 2 sweaters in inherited from my aunt. Darned 2 socks. Deep cleaned our bedroom including going through clothes in the closet. Laundry stripped 3 shirts that needed it. Washed mattress pad. It feels very good. I have no idea what inspired me to do spring cleaning in December, though I do have the feeling that this year has been hard and I want to shed the crap now and close out the year. Fresh space and possibilities await next year!
5. Eating very frugally. Swiss chard and collard greens from the garden. I bought spinach and what you pointed out, Katy, was true. 5oz of spinach in a bag was $2.99. 5oz spinach in a box was $3.99. The box totally looked like more, but was exactly the same amount.
YES — so glad that other people can notice that the bag and the container have the same amount!
Awesome deal on milk!
Your #1 – we all have our quirks.
No shopping here. I made 3 memory quilts, 2 memory bears and 2 Quillows. The neighbors and friends get the usual suet & seed pinecones for the birds, homemade jams, fresh loaf of bread, granola and dried fruit bars. 3 of the fisher boys will get a couple of my dad’s fishing poles/lures/set ups for the type of fishing they enjoy. The girls are inheriting some of grannie’s baubles. She loved jewelry, I rarely wear it.
I use tins/baskets and shopping bags that I find in free piles, wash em up and line with home shredded craft paper.
Hosting a football party today for the Army/Navy game. I am 11th generation. Made spinach dip, smoked salmon, veggie sticks/dirty martini dip, meat platter and fresh hawaiian rolls & homemade hot mustard. We have 21 people!
Made everything from the freezers or homemade.
Neighbor’s tree fell last night from the windstorm, after the game, the boys are grabbing the chainsaws and my splitter and will cut it up and get it in the barn.
Neighbor doesn’t burn wood.
That sounds like some absolutely amazing food — well done!
Sorry about the tree, but it sounds like you know how to make the most of a bad situation.
I still use some of the tools that my grandfather owned so I truly appreciate that your Dad still uses his tools all these years later.
1) Made the base for Italian Penicillin Soup from some wilting vegetables and homemade chicken stock. I’ll put it away in quart jars in the freezer to be eaten later.
2) I wrapped Christmas gifts in wrapping paper that I bought 5 or more years ago at an after Christmas sale.
3) My Christmas gifts to my husband are used books that I bought earlier this year with points from selling books.
4) I bought chocolate chips, butterscotch chips, and dark chocolate chips on a loss leader sale plus a coupon. Normally they are $5 a bag and I bought 5 bags for $11
5) I give consumables for Christmas gifts to folks so I will be making cookies this weekend. I’ve already made fudge and various candy over the last month and put it in the freezer. I made plum jam this summer and canned for gift giving
1. I have black beans going in the crock pot. Hubby asked me to make some black bean soup but I was out of cooked ones. I made enough for a double batch of soup that I will make tomorrow and a bunch to freeze.
2. We had hubby’s Holiday work party. It cost us $1.50 to park. Hubby won one of the auction prizes, a free retirement season. You had to partake in events throughout the year to earn auction money. We always go because 1 It’s FREE and 2 we both believe in helping the community. Hubby had extra $ so we gave it to a coworker.
3. To earn $5 auction bucks you could wear a holiday sweater. Hubby didn’t have one so I went to the thrift store and got him one for $3. I wore a holiday shirt that I already had with a santa hat. We both got lots of compliments.
4. I brought lunch and a snack everyday this week to work. I drink filtered water at work.
5. I did an embroidery class at the library. I drove my neighbor. We didn’t finish in the class so they let us borrow needles. I also grabbed a free puzzle and 2 books while I was there. Sign up was this week for classes starting next month. We all got several classes that we wanted. We were waitlisted on some too. Love my library!
My house is the scene of an ” ugly socks” party each December.
Socks are inexpensive and I make some munchies to snack on and it’s a lot of laughs.
1. I browned 1 lb of Italian sausage this week. I used 1/3 in a baked dish with sweet potatoes and apples 1/3 in spaghetti sauce, and tonight the last 1/3 on a homemade pizza.
2. I used the leftover spaghetti sauce as my sauce for the pizza.
3. Dh is sick. When digging through the freezer I spotted a ham bone from last Christmas. I quickly threw together a ham and bean soup. I used an entire onion to boost his immune system as well as the 1 lone potato I had and a handful of baby carrots. I had at some point bought 2 cans of navy beans to make this soup and forgot all about it until today. Dh had a yummy immune boosting soup for lunch with 4 meals of leftovers.
4. Haven’t eaten out since before Thanksgiving.
5. Sold some college pj pants on Ebay that had been listed over 3 years ago. I won’t make a ton of money but they will go to someone who really wants them.
1. We need to decamp from our home every day while our remodeling contractor does loud demolition work. We take our pup to doggie daycare where she is safe and happy, and then we do things away from the house. I usually pack our lunches.
2. Donated to Habitat Restore all the hardware that was removed from the kitchen cabinets.
3. Needed to hire a couple movers to move some furniture that we were unable to do on our own.
4. Attended the cheaper matinee showing of the movie Wicked with my sister.
5. Attended a church funeral and instead of the typical one-hour visitation beforehand and a lunch afterward, the family offered a two-hour visitation with continental breakfast before the service. Simply lovely.
Put the blame of no longer well made products on those who twiddled the tax code to make more money for the brass and “the shareholders”. The price of a Barbie doll did not decrease when Mattel moved production overseas. But their CEO/brass/shareholders made a lot more money.
The war on the middle class and union busting started the decline of the US being the powerhouse it once was. Irwin tools were made in America until they were purchased by another manufacturer. Overseas the production went and the products are no longer close to the same quality. I had zero sympathy when a previous employer sent production of a division overseas. Besides paying the government of the country based on inventory 2-3 times a year, the details of the products were pilfered and soon cheap knock-offs (yes from China) put a serious dent in their profits for that division.
5 frugal things swiss house in the mountains edition 😉
1. My neighbor hired a company to fell trees, I struck a deal with them to fell all my 20 marked trees as well (we can’t fell trees without a permit here) The farmer neighbor who uses my field for cattle will cut the wood in 1 meter segments which I will store to dry
2. I cut up and pressure cooked 1/4 of a goat for the dogs. I got 4 goats for a really good price from my farmer neighbor, but they do take up a lot of place in the freezer!
3. I listed a bunch of stuff on FB marketplace, including snowboard boots which promptly sold. ‘Tis the season!
4. I made a delicious meal of yellow stickered sea bass from the freezer, I made a soy ginger gochujang marinade and cooked it in the air fryer over some home grown chard, served with expired but still perfectly delicious sushi rice
5. I cleaned a bunch of picture frames soon to be listed on FB