Five Tiny Frugal Things
by Katy on March 16, 2025 · 35 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.
I get a two pound bag of free lemons once a month. We use a lot of lemons, so this is welcome.
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.
Bettypants, for the longest time I’d get free frozen pizza or free cream cheese coupons from Kroger (a couple of times I got both in one month but that was years ago). Then the free coupons were replaced with something like “save $18 on a $200 purchase” coupons. Since I never spent that much at once – even when having lots of company – I’d leave those on a shelf in the store for someone who would be able to use them. However. This current month’s coupons included one for a free brick of cream cheese, so there’s hope that free item coupons might return. Free items are the only thing I’ve been “buying” at Kroger lately. I recently found a free item coupon while browsing through the hundreds of digital coupons (apparently I was bored that day). No heads up on it, just a “good customer reward” or something like that.
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
1. My husband was given wireless headphones from work. I took a black sharpie to the company name to have them blend in with the rest of the all black headphones and not advertise a brand/company. I just used them and they are very comfortable.
2. We ordered some liquid fence (crystallized fox pee for keeping deer from eating plants) and it came boxed with some other things we ordered and one of the liquid fence jugs broke. it smelled so bad and the crystals were leaking out. The company sent a replacement for everything we ordered and my husband braved the smell and opened the original box and was able to salvage everything but one of the liquid fence jugs so we got some extra for the price of the original package.
3. I decluttered sweaters and long sleeved shirts and put a bunch of them on my Buy Nothing group. Helpful for my community and now my stuff is decluttered, organized and only has things that I like and will wear.
4. Scheduled a time to drop off a lot of other things I am decluttering to a lady who owns a consignment shop. She cuts me a check for half of whatever my stuff sells for. I’ve been doing this for years as a nice easy way to declutter while also recouping some of the money spent originally on the items.
5. My husband was given a dominos gift card from work so we had pizza for free on Friday!
I wonder how they collect the urine. It seems–fraught.
I looked it up and here is the answer:
Urine is collected from animals in game farms, zoos and preserves. These wild game care providers are fully regulated by the appropriate state agencies. Those agencies conduct regular inspections of each facility to assure that the facility meets all health and treatment standards established by each agency. The urine is collected via floor collection drains in pens and cages and the animals are always treated in a most humane manner. In addition, these wild game care providers find that the revenue generated by the renewable resource of urine delivers a much needed income stream that allows these providers to keep many more animals alive and healthy
That is a huge relief. Not what I was imagining. Thank you for sharing.
1. My old iPhone 6 was not holding a charge long enough for me to have much of a conversation with my sister. I decided to try a repair, rather than a new phone. Turned out it needed a new battery as I suspected. Battery and installation came to a total of $68 and now, it’s working great. If it lasts a few more years, I’ll be happy.
2. I wonder how FM decides which particular free coupon to send to various customers. My free coupon was for organic blueberries. I do like blueberries, but I usually only buy them when they are in season, not in March. Still free is a good deal so I did pick up a package and will have blueberries on my cereal in the morning.
3. I’m reading Demon Copperhead which I found at the library in the large print edition. I really like large print these days so I’m grateful for the big selection of these books. The book is making me want to go back and read David Copperfield which I haven’t read since high school.
4. DH and I are happy with the free movies and shows which we can watch on Hoopla and Kanopy. I don’t feel any urgent need to re-subscribe to Netflix.
5. Frugal fail: I bought a box of Thin Mint cookies from the Girl Scouts who had set up a sales table outside the grocery store.
Buying a box of Thin Mints is like buying books, IMO: It doesn’t count against you as a frugal fail.
I loved Demon Copperhead and I did re-read David Copperfield right after, it was a fun experience trying to match the characters!
1. Husband sautéed leftover roasted asparagus with his eggs and toast for breakfast.
2. Made sesame noodles as a side dish for UU church event. All got eaten but one serving. Pot lucks are frugal! Cheaper than catering and more fun (if you like to cook)
3. Made 4 quarts of chix stock with leftovers bones and veg scraps in my instant pot
4. Played bingo for free at local brewery. DH won a round so his one drink was free.
5. Brewery was giving away seeds from 2023 batch. Assuming at least some will start!
Hey, I’m a UU, too. 🙂
FTFT, I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends Edition:
(1) One of my two Sunday morning walking buddies had the other one, the other one’s husband, and me over for brunch yesterday (Sunday). I skipped the walk because of the weather forecast (I wasn’t sure I was up to high winds and rain), and was late for brunch because I inadvertently turned off the ringtone on my flip phone, but it was a delicious meal and a good time anyway. The scrambled eggs a la Julia Child, and the smoked salmon from Costco, were highlights.
(2) As noted at the end of my comment on Katy’s previous post, I gave some gardening supplies I don’t plan to use again to the older daughter of Bailey dog’s human parents, who has recently bought a small place in the country east of here, and is experimenting this year with seed starting. The supplies included two electric grow mats (for seedlings like tomatoes and peppers), some plastic trays and pots for seedlings, and some tomato cages and other plant supports. I was very happy to pass these along to a deserving young friend, and she was very happy to get them. (And we were all amused to discover that two of the tomato cages, which DH and I constructed out of concrete reinforcing wire back in 1984, are 10 years older than she is.) I’ve been promised some of the eventual tomato crop.
(3) But then came the tornado warning. Dr. Bestest Neighbor emailed me about this (good thing, because my cell phone ringtone was still off!)–so I had just enough time to call my NDN and warn her, and then get my own keister into my basement. It only lasted about half an hour. We did get a sharp, fast line squall, but we never lost power, and I had no major damage in my yard. A neighborly network, no power loss, and no downed trees = very frugal things and a lot of luck.
(4) And then came the water outage: A cascade of events caused partly by the storm and partly by other factors resulted in most of the city’s losing water pressure or losing water altogether for a few hours. And the water coming out of the taps this morning (Monday) is still a bit cloudy. Good thing I maintain my old habit (formed before the Y2K scare, for you young folks who are into ancient history) of keeping a dozen or so rinsed-out gallon vinegar jugs full of water on hand for such events. I’ve found that just buying and storing water in the usual plastic jugs doesn’t work as well; the vinegar jugs are sturdier.
(5) Finally, since I’m keeping a low profile today at home (the temperature dropped sharply after the line squall, and it’s starting to spit snow), I’m about to make a pizza–which I will share with the Bestest Neighbors if they’re so inclined.
1. Spent the weekend painting my sister’s ceiling. This might sound silly but my grandparents had put up beautiful framing with beams painted green. I am the only one short enough to stand on the table and sand these beams, meaning I had a green st patrick’s day glow by the end of Saturday. Free time together, plus my family is at our best when we have a project to do. Very frugal for my sister as we joked that DH and I were her contractors 🙂
2. In the office today; brewed my own coffee and brought my water bottle. Saving for breakfast and snacks means being able to eat lunch with a friend and enjoy it without worrying about expense.
3. Declined a weekend trip to accompany DH on a scuba excursion. I really want to go but I had budgeted for a quiet weekend at home. Katy, your cleanout project has inspired me! Can’t wait to put on some frank sinatra and tackle our closets while I have the place to myself.
4. My mom sent us home with homemade sauce, leftover pasta, and our favorite seltzers from Wegmans (forever an upstate gal at heart!). This will get us through at least 2 dinners and we can freeze the rest. I’m VERY happy.
5. Experiencing the libby backlog of everything I had on hold coming available at once. Ack! An embarrassment of riches.
1. Thursday, March 14, was PI day. Our local convince store had whole pizzas for $3.14 each. Took my daughter and we each bought one. We had pizza pie and apple pie for dinner with lots of pizza leftover for future lunches.
2. Today is St Patrick’s day. We are not Irish but enjoy having themed meals. Lucky Charms with green milk for breakfast. (Cereal had a rebate and I reuse the inner bag as wax paper and the outer box goes to a friend that up cycles cereal boxes into a craft project she sells.) dinner will be corned beef (half off) and cabbage/carrots and roasted potatoes (all on hand). I know it’s not an authentic St. Patty’s day meal but it’s big in the US.
3. While I was away my hubby bought guinea pig food at the expensive store instead of the much cheaper Feedstore. I’ll be returning with unopened bag this week.
4. I bought 2 frozen garlic bread for dinner last night but after I bought them a friend gave me a large frozen garlic bread. Today I’ll be returning the ones I bought.
5. The same friend gifted me a huge bag if mandarin oranges, 5 big oranges, snacks and a bunch of other food items she got from the good bank but her family won’t eat all of.
1. I found a penny and a dime! I thought I’d found a half dollar, but it turned out to be someone’s sobriety coin.
2. I went to an estate sale with my list of BOLO items — all practical things that I’d otherwise buy at a store. I found some of the things. This saved me money, kept me out of Trump’s economy, and is better for the environment. Also, it scratched my itch to go shopping, which will help me stay away from corporate stores.
3. I read “All Fours” on my free library app. (Wow!) I just started “James”.
4. I am making Irish soda bread to have with potato soup tonight. This will use up some bacon I found in the freezer and some raisins I found in the pantry. I hope to make room in the freezer for gifts to my future self. (There’s no way I can fit a tray of enchiladas in there!)
5. I haven’t caged any toddlers.
James is amazing. Enjoy it!
My tiny frugal things include:
1. My FitBit refused to charge, despite me trying a couple of different ports on the wall charger. I did my online research, tried all the suggestions, and…nothing. Then the light bulb went on in my brain, and I remembered a recent “power flick”, where we’d lost power very briefly. Pulled the wall charger off, hit the reset of the GFCI, replaced the charger – success! My FitBit and I are happy together once again.
2. Both my new bar of soap and my husband’s new bar of soap have little baby soap slivers from previous bars possuming on their backs. Zero waste soap.
3. In the past week I cut open not one but two tubes of lotion. There’s a lot of product still left in there; one in particular has a crazy amount left, maybe 25%. I’m keeping track of how many days worth of “extra” use I’ll get out of those cut apart tubes. Yes my house has some interesting looking items in it.
4. The toothpaste tube has been cut open and pieced back together as well.
5. Our four slice toaster quit on us. I knew that at one time we had a new two slice toaster (it was a giveaway or door prize or something) but I thought I’d donated it along with other giveaway items. I decided to look in the basement anyway, and there it was. Originally I thought “well, this’ll last until we get a new four slice toaster”. Then I came to my senses and realized that the only reason we even had a four slice was for when family and friends visit. And for the life of me I couldn’t ever remember anyone ever using more than two toast slots at a time. Do we really need a four slice toaster? Nope. The freebie toaster will do just fine.
“Soap sliver possums”! Love this!
1. Received the contractor discount at the paint store since I was buying more paint for a space that was originally painted by our contractor.
2. Purchased an end table at the consignment store for $30 during a 20% off sale.
3. Painted the end table above using random paint left by the previous owner of our home.
4. Used a bag of stuffing mix from Buy Nothing in an egg bake.
5. Received a set of hinges from Buy Nothing to replace our rusty ones.
Frugal fail: We had purchased tickets to a live music event but then husband got sick. Gave the tickets to a young couple for a date night via Buy Nothing. We’re out $40 but they enjoyed themselves.
I don’t consider that a frugal fail – a fail would be the tickets went unused. We’ve done this a couple of times in the past. Once when a once in our life time sporting event featuring our favorite team clashed with an event. The other was best to stay home after a cat we took in had surgery. For both events, the tickets were purchased well in advance and we all know life happens.
1. Went on a trash walk this morning — where I carry a bag and pick up trash. Good exercise and good for the neighborhood.
2. On my walk I found a child’s scrunchie, a partial roll of packing tape, a replica peach, a Christmas ornament, a Halloween ornament, and some Velcro straps. I’m keeping the peach for my basket of fake fruit, as well as the tape. The other things will go to Goodwill after a cleaning.
3. Yesterday I found a dime.
4. I’ve been using leftover restaurant food, which has been stored in the freezer, to make breakfast sandwiches. One more biscuit left, so one more sandwich tomorrow. The leftover scrambled eggs are surprisingly good in the sandwiches. I think adding cheese and bacon has helped!
5. Almost bought a new bottle of purple shampoo, but I shopped in my storage cabinet instead and found a bottle I evidently bought some time ago and forgot about!
Yay, a dime!!!!! I love found money.
Hooray for your “trash walks!”