Five Tiny Frugal Things
by Katy on March 16, 2025 · 13 comments
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I finished organizing all the drawers from our built-in buffet, which was deeply satisfying. I found a lot of things to recycle, a few things to throw away, one thing to gift through Buy Nothing (the above clothesline) and a handful of random bits and bobs to donate to Goodwill. I then gave my husband a tour of the drawers and he commented on how it’ll be so much easier to find certain things from here on out. Goal achieved!
Having things organized is a money saver, as you won’t end up buying things simply because you can’t locate them. Just yesterday my husband picked up a six-pack of button batteries, when we actually had two in reserve. Now he knows where to look instead of assuming we’re out of a certain type of battery.
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I assembled and froze two 9×13 pans of rice and bean enchiladas as a favor to my future self, as I know I’ll be busy while my niece visits next week. She’s a vegetarian, my daughter can’t eat gluten and everyone else just wants a tasty meal. Me? I just want to make sure I have a plan in place for hosting multiple family dinners.
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I used a coupon for a free pint of Haagen Dazs ice cream, which served as our dessert last night. Fred Meyer (Kroger) mails out personalized coupons once a month or so and for some reason, (maybe I was good in a past life?) mine always includes a coupon for free ice cream. Not mad about it.
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I continue my No Spend March economic boycott, which means no shopping beyond groceries.
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Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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Found some cute vintage Coke glasses on Facebook marketplace. My family is clumsier than most and we were running low on drinking glasses.
Gave my back porch a free makeover by cleaning up clutter and sweeping.
Played video and board games as a family for free entertainment.
Continued reading library books for free entertainment.
Not frugal but worth it – had McDonalds for dinner as an incentive for my son to go to tutoring and bring his math grade up. It worked. I did save 20% using the app.
Occasional bribes are totally worth it, I’ve found. From pottery training on into the 20s, sigh.
Potty training, sheesh!
1. I walked twice with my friend last week for free exercise and amateur therapy. I’m excited that all the ice is melted and we can start walking again.
2. I cleaned my bathroom walls and ceiling with my estate sale purchased new to me spin mop. It worked great and is much more efficient than doing it by hand on a ladder.
3. I used an empty softener salt bag to empty my central vac canister into before trashing it.
4. I did my laundry and hung it to dry on racks. I’m using powder detergent for the first time in years to avoid the use of plastic.
5. I dropped off my taxes to my friend who does them for me.
Spent $86 on groceries at Hannaford, which is supposed to be one of the “good ones,” owned in Belgium. This does not include pet food, litter, dishwasher powder, or the bottle of Vitamin D pills, which I take “for” MS (some studies show low Vitamin D levels coinciding with exacerbations, so through the northern winter I supplement, hey it can’t hurt…)
I haven’t found a way to spend less than I do on pet food while maintaining quality, and litter is of course non-negotiable… I mean, I could make dog food and cat food but that way madness lies.
When the snow melts, the cats will happily switch from their litter boxes to my garden, which is not a win…
Katy, a couple pans of enchiladas sounds great just about now.
1. My current self thanks my past self. I’m meh on steak but my partner loves it (all meat, really) and so when I saw a steak on FlashFood, I bought it, knowing that on the first nice spring-like day, he would want to grill one. Today is that day.
2. Eating grilled cabbage and potatoes with the steak, both free from the CSA that he gets from work.
3. Need a quick make-ahead/freeze dessert for 2 for Friday. I’m making an apple & frozen berry crisp that I can prep now, freeze, and then bake on Friday. I’ll serve it with free ice cream coming tomorrow as part of a mystery shop. The apple was free (CSA) and the frozen berries have been in my freezer for a looong time.
4. Partner stopped by our local brewery (he is a regular) and the cook make a batch of pancake batter as they were running out. As soon as he made it, people stopped ordering pancakes, so they offered my partner 16 ounce container of the batter. Knowing me, he gladly accepted, so I’ll be having breakfast for dinner this week, along with some breakfast sausage that I got on deep discount.
5. Heat if off, windows are open. No gold fake FIFA world cup statues have been purchased.
Fred Meyer’s always gives us free toothpaste. We have a drawer full, plus plenty to stick in the local “little free pantry” box for those in need. Ice cream would be a nice change of pace, though!
1) My son and I hit the thrift store for some needs/wants. He found the old Xbox game he had been wanting and trying to avoid ordering online, and it was only $2. I found two beautifully plush bath towels in just the shade of green that I like in my kitchen for a $1 each. I’ll cut them down and add binding/toppers to turn them into lovely kitchen hand towels. A beautiful vintage tablecloth also came home with me for $2.50. It’s perfect my 1930s Swedish gateleg table I curb picked a few years ago.
2) Our dishrags are also falling apart, so I dug through my yarn stash for some green cotton and have begun to knit new ones.
3) I had two coffee dates this week, one with a new friend and one with an old friend I haven’t seen in awhile. I chose mid-afternoon meeting times so it wouldn’t coincide with meal time that would require spending on lunch, and we met at local coffee shops instead of union-busting chains.
4) I made three short baguettes (so they fit in the bread box) and two loaves of sandwich bread for the week. I’ve finally mastered a method that requires little hands-on time– I mix up the dough on Friday evenings and do a two minute knead on each every thirty minutes over two hours, then stick the two bowls of dough in the fridge overnight for a slow rise. Simply pull it out in the a.m., let it come to room temp, shape, and bake.
5) I didn’t do anything so stupid, cruel, or selfish enough that it required a federal judge to block it.
My free Kroger coupon was Sabra hummus for months, and then it switched to Lays chips. Sadly, now our coupons no longer include the free item one. Booo, Kroger.
1. I sold all 4 of the cross stitch pamphlets that I picked out of the library free box, and my profit was $61. I also sold a book for $5 and some DVDs for $12, both pickup from Marketplace.
2. Someone brought in blizzards for our entire office. There were several leftover, so I ate mine and brought one home for my son.
3. Thank you to the person on here who mentioned the Peacock 3 month free trial from Target! I signed up and found a few things to watch.
4. My cactus plant had gotten too top heavy, so I took it apart and split it out to propagate. I loathe dealing with this one, as it sheds invisible tiny spikes in every direction.
5. I have been walking a lot outdoors the last two days as it finally warmed up here. Found a quarter on yesterday’s walk. And today we’re back indoors because it’s rain-snowing.
1.Hubby and I went out for our anniversary. We went to a Polish restaurant that has been around for over 40 years. The son of the original owner took it over. They have a 3 course meal for $40 that is delicious. It comes with a drink or dessert.I had water, Hubby had wine. I had cheesecake and took it home. Appetizers were a huge salad and corn fritters with horseradish sauce that is better than my grandma made(sorry Grandma).I got sauerbraten with potato pancakes, apple sauce and red cabbage. Hubby got the German combo which was a smoked pork chop, Knockwurst, bratwurst, potato pancakes, applesauce, mashed potatoes, broccoli, carrots and cauliflower. We brought home leftovers. We don’t eat out often but when we do we have a few places that we love that are amazing.
2. All of my seeds that needed to be started are started. I did tomatoes, peppers, eggplants, lots of herbs and some flowers inside. I started peas out in the garden. I pulled my baby aloe plants and offered them on Buy Nothing group and to friends. I had 6 takers.
3. I made the dogs food for the week.
4.Today we made banana chocolate chip muffins, hard boiled eggs, chicken noodle soup, French toast, pork fried rice, Chinese chicken and asparagus and lemon bars. Lots of leftovers for the week. Now that I am working a lot it is easier for us to cook a lot on the weekend and eat it with items in the freezer instead of getting take out. I also cooked some chicken bones and the stock went into the freezer for future soups.
5. I went to the library, and I cleaned the house. Hubby is fixing our shower himself. We paid our bills online so we didn’t have to pay for stamps. I washed baggies and reused foil. I ran the laundry on the cold cycle. Most of the laundry was hung up to dry.
6. My sister dropped her dog off because she has to travel for work. She brought
me 3 dozen eggs as payment(her friend owns a farm). She ate breakfast of French Toast and sausage with homemade applesauce. She gave me a few items that she didn’t want and told me to sell what I can’t use. I listed a few things.
7. I garbage picked a rubbermaid tub. I will drill holes in it and use it in my garden.
1. I redeemed points fron doing surveys to get an Ebay gift card, which I will use to buy a couple of items (probably used)- a chair cushion and a CD/DVD holder. My current desk chair cushion has reached the point where it can no longer be fixed. And I want to consolidate my DVD collection because the set of shelves I used to keep them on has broken. This way I don’t need to buy more shelves.
2. I was craving chocolate, so I made chocolatey mini muffins using what I had on hand.
3. I made meatless tacos and a rice side for a very inexpensive dinner and ate the leftovers for two more days.
4. I made two grocery orders from different stores to get everything on my list at the lowest price. Not something I normally do because there’s a minimum order amount for delivery, and doubling this makes the total pretty high (for me). But I am now stocked up for the next two or three weeks, so it evens out.
5. I realized we won’t need the next cat food delivery as soon as I thought, so I delayed the autoship.
We are going on vacation so I packed our bags…
1. Flying a budget airline and did not pay for extra luggage. Making due with a personal size bag-5 days worth! A tip for others on budget flights, if you fly with young kids, they seat you with a parent for no extra charge. Check your airline policy, it’s worth the savings. Not necessarily the whole family together though…Figured this out after a minimal expense on this flight but not next time!
2. Avoiding office fee and time by having dog vaccinated while boarding.
3. Wanted a choc croissant, but didn’t want to spend extra so I took my regular croissant from Costco, cut a slit in the middle and filled with mini choc chips. It worked a charm! 20 sec in microwave to melt….
4. Using a free to me Pollenex foot bath to give myself a no spend spa pedicure. At home manicure too, after dishes are done. Ha. And going all in on the spa at home, I’m waxing brows and using a gifted face mask.
5. Turned leftovers into lunch and breakfast for tomorrow.
6. Clearing out fridge for dinner. Chopped veg and froze it for future veg soup instead of tossing it.
7. Coffee at home. I prefer mine anyway.
8. Packed a bag of fun treats for my kiddo. The airport is 2 hours away, but flights were half off compared to the local airport!
9. There is easy food ready to go in the freezer when we get home to avoid extra spending when we get home and are famished. Lunch items are also in place so no last minute scrambling for school.
10. Our vacation entertainment is free as we are using up passes that were extended for 3 months at no additional cost.
Good work on the drawers! I love having a freshly organized space!
1. Shopped at Goodwill, found a shirt to resell. I used one of my Goodwill coupons and let my husband use the other.
2. Made a meatless meal of lentil soup.
3. Planted more seeds! So excited about the garden!
4. Continuing to compost
5. Went to a free homeschool group pasta making class