Four Frugal Things -- A $3.50 Bathroom Upgrade!
1) My sister and I drove over to the Garthwick neighborhood garage sales and picked up a couple items. I spent $3.73, mostly on this bathroom light fixture, which set me back a whopping $3.50. I scrubbed the rust off a similar fixture a few months ago, (which I wrote about HERE) but that was never more than a temporary solution.
For comparison:
I'm still proud of how I took it from "eyesore" to "good enough."
Now I can upgrade the bathroom for less than four bucks, while still keeping to my Buy Nothing New goal! (Going strong since 2007!)
The angle makes it look like the new fixture is much wider than the old one, but they're pretty much the same size.
2) I also got some free clothespins, which are sorely needed as I'm too lazy to bring mine in during inclement weather. Can you tell which ones are new?
I also spent 23¢ on a decent quality plastic plant, which I quickly added to the window box on the front of my house. Sounds tacky, but it actually looks really cute.
3) We stopped by our mother's house for a visit and I helped myself to a pair of her neighbor's zucchini.
I wish I had enough sun to plant a garden, but I gave up after years of fruitless attempts.
Our maple tree provides blissful shade and oxygen to my backyard, just not much sunshine!
We immediately put those zucchini to good use!
4) I'm halfway through reading my personal copy of Little House on The Prairie, which I'm using for my "Everyone's talking about" Powell's Reading Challenge bingo card square. Why? Because Netflix released their Little House series earlier this summer and people had Big Opinions about it! I didn't watch it, but the challenge ends tomorrow and it's crunch time!
Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
"Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without."
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I volunteer for a political cause; we opened our campaign office with several office chairs, including one I scavenged and washed sooo thoroughly, another from Buy Nothing. Another member donated spare folding chairs. A member has a garage with loft space where we can store things between events/ campaigns. Our tables, chairs, and other resources are used by several aligned groups, making them a community resource!
Be sure to spray some clear poly on the new light fixture to keep rust away.
DH and I figured out how to open the back of my watch to get the dead battery out, but none of the local stores had the right size replacement, so I had to order one. $7 for a battery is better than the $25 the watch shop will charge to do the same thing.
Been eating from the pantry (yummy rice and beans with a bowl of canned peaches as a side), reading library books, and doing household chores because staying home is frugal.
The bathroom light fixture was an amazing find!
I scanned my receipts from yesterday to Fetch, and one was worth 800 points! That took me well over the 32,500 points I needed for a $25 Visa card, which has been ordered.
I actually brought home more than one burger patty from yesterday's lunch, because I only ate half of one patty. I ate the other half today with sourdough bread as a bun. I also made Pioneer Woman's pea salad, using red onion, pickles and scallions from yesterday's lunch.
I have looked at the clothes that BFF gave me, and they all look like keepers to me. All casual tops. I put them in the hamper, because washing secondhand clothes, even when they're already clean, makes them feel like mine.
I am bracing for hotter weather tomorrow. I may be spending some serious time at the community center and the library.
Froze quartered tomatoes and sliced beets (separately). Kept 3 bags of beets whole.to make borscht this winter. I've never tried freezing beets so I hope the texture remains good, fingers crossed!
Cooked a ham while at church. It will keep us in sandwiches this week. We're expecting hot weather. I'll freeze the hock for beans later.
Dug out an iron on patch to fix Dh's shirt. The rip is in a place that will be tucked in, so I don't have to be too particular.
Defrosted a freezer and unplugged it.
Cobbled up a tank and float to water the bovine buddies from our stock pond. Built a fence.to exclude them from wading in my newly renovated pond. Sorry guys, the water tastes better when you don't bathe in it!!!
Batched errands with an Aldis run.
Hanging out clothes, composting, and eating from the garden and freezer.
Family is going fishing this evening. Hey, we pay for this place!!! :p
1. It FINALLY rained, so Mother Nature watered everything free of charge.
2. Went to the free (and fantastic) Minnesota Museum of Art in downtown Saint Paul with a friend. She paid for parking since I drove. We gave a small donation.
3. Our established hydrangea inexplicably died, so we plan to divide a huge hosta this fall and plant it where the hydrangea used to be.
4. Husband unwittingly signed up for a $40/month subscription to an app to help with sleep. I noticed a $2 charge so I called the company and learned that he had ordered a one-time demo of the app and didn't know that he was signing up for something more. It pays to pay attention!
5. Received notice a while back that the healthcare system we use will no longer work with our Medicare Advantage Plan as of January 1. We're happy with both as is and unhappy that something will have to change. Or *may* change as they're in negotiations, as always, and freaking out their older and sicker customers in the meantime. It makes me sick!
BOO to your health plan uncertainty!
Thrivent Financial for Lutherans in their headquarters in Minneapolis has a small free art gallery, though I have not been there.
And Chicago has the Federal Reserve Museum of Money in the loop, also free, also have not been there. Guess I am proving myself as an imaginary traveler only.
1. Gas is $3.45 a gallon today. It fluctuates so much here!
2. I plan to walk an hour tonight or do an hour of walking in place inside by the air bc it is HOT!
3. I ate some of the mashed potatoes and cabbage steaks I made yesterday. I intend to make a hamburger with my Aldi meat. Well, I am not sure if this package is Aldi or Cost Plus grocery store but either way, I am making a hamburger with it. I made an egg and tomato sandwich on a bagel this morning.
4. I paid my first of the month bills.
It is frugal to not incur late fees.
5. For entertainment I went to church and listened to their impromptu choir. They were pretty good.
How did I not know about a new Little House on the Prairie show? I loved those books as a kid. As an adult, I reread the books and was surprised at some of the racist content that must have flown right over my young head! It was a different time for sure!
There are no new frugal things happening for me. I’m still up to my ears in produce that I’m canning and freezing for my future self. I had a BLT for lunch, using a tomato fresh from the vine. Yum!
1. I noticed on my receipt from Walmart I was charged twice for a pack of paint brushes yesterday. I was going by the same Walmart on my way home from church today so I popped in and was refunded the overcharge plus tax.
2. It was our organist's last Sunday playing at our church as he is starting his first year of college soon. He's been our organist since he was 15 and is an incredible talent. A going away party was hosted for him after church where cake and coffee was served. It was a treat to eat some unexpected cake.
3. Stepson came over and built a new set of stairs up to our front porch. The only payment he wanted was for DH to pay for the campsite they'll both be camping at over Labor Day Weekend. DH was going to pay for half of it anyway so it wasn't a big jump to pay the other half.
4. I was tempted to buy some mums for the front of the house but realized we still have an abundance of Black-eyed Susans blooming there so passed them by.
5. Since I ate a late lunch/early supper at around 3:30 I'll make a bowl of popcorn before bed and call it a day.
1. Rhubarb plants are continuing to produce so I pulled a bunch and have stewed it with cinnamon and ginger. I will freeze it in small portions and eat it with greek yogurt. I don't add sugar when I stew it, but later add a few stevia drops. I have to watch my carb intake so this will be a good low carb snack.
2. I have lots of cucumbers, and have given some to my neighbour. She reciprocated with a large jar of homemade pickles. I then made peanut butter cookies for her visiting grandson, as well as some banana blackberry muffins from berries from her yard that hang over our fence.
3. I like to decorate my guest cottage with fresh flowers, and my dahlias are continuing to provide beautiful blooms.
4. DH took an old tired wooden bench that came with our house apart, painted the metal supports, and added new wood for the seat and back. It looks great.
5. We've been accepted as clients of a new vet clinic that is opening in October. It will be a 10-15 minute drive there, instead of the 1 hour I drive right now for one dog, and 1/2 hour I drive for the other one.
1. Again visited the church I'm thinking about joining. Turns out that they have lunch in their fellowship hall every Sunday after services, and it's free. (People bring covered dishes and produce from their gardens). It's over in plenty of time for me to get to my job at 2 p.m.
2. I also had a free supper, albeit an early bird one, as work is still giving us slices of pizza in the break room.
3. A customer gave my coworker a diet soda, not knowing she's allergic to aspartame, so she gave it to me.
4. Gasoline is $3.29 at H-E-B, so I'll fill up after sundown. When it's cooler.
5. One of my customers today bought one of those baby books printed on the hard cardboard for pages -- the kind designed for little bitty tots. She told me she was going to a baby shower, and the guests were asked to bring a storybook (aka "board book") instead of buying a card. Because this was the mother-to-be's first child, the mom thought those books could be not only used for this baby...but also handed down to his younger siblings someday when they arrive. I thought that was a really dandy and frugal idea, esp. since greeting cards are so expensive these days. So I'm passing this along to all of you....
I went to a shower (the "baby" we were showering with gifts is now seven years old!) where we were asked to bring a book for the baby and a book for the mom-to-be. I brought a board book for the baby and a what to expect in the first year type book for mom. Such a great idea! Glad you got to experience it too.
I love the idea of bringing a dish and having lunch at church while you're already there. A church here in town does the same but unfortunately my church does not. We do have "coffee and..." from Labor Day to Memorial Day every Sunday. Sometimes I count that as an early lunch!
I have a clothesline on pulleys, Katy, so can't leave the clips on it - I gotta admit that when I had an umbrella clothesline the pins had an, er, 'artistic patina'
1. I'm trying to get to bed earlier, which seems to be happening but my sleep is like a baby's – I wake up every couple of hours. I don't need to eat, though, just visit the washroom then try to fall back asleep again. Weird and annoying, for sure. And I woke up far too early yesterday.
So I cleared up the kitchen and sliced the 8 field cucumbers that I had purchased at the scratch and dent vegetable store. I got them into cold salted water into the downstairs fridge, and prepped the onions – I finally managed to make my mom's delicious bread and butter pickles, which I love to have on Grilled cheese sandwiches. It has been a hot minute since I had any in my pantry.
I canned them in pristine glass jars with screw top lids procured by a friend, who gets them from a neighbour, a fan of costco jarred peaches. The jars are very pretty – square with a green lid – and the lids look brand new inside. Normally I eschew anything other than new lids, however this is an experiment made safer by the acidity of the vinegar. All 6 jars 'popped' in the usual satisfying way.
2. The discount bananas were peeled and broken into 'sticks' – then went out in the dehydrator.
3. A late night effort saw the last of the 'gotta deal with 'em' purple plums pitted and onto dehydrator trays. It was rather epic.
A third of the remaining (picked later) plums were fobbed off on a friend.
The green plums were sorted and most put in the fridge, with more fobbed off on some friends. Everyone says “no, thanks” when I offer the green ones, but politely will eat 'just one' when I encourage them. Then it is all “OH MY!!” and big eyes expressing the deliciousness they are experiencing. They are more than willing to take some plums off my hands after they taste them.
I cut up the few bruised and dented plums and made a new-to-me pudding style cake – however the almond flavouring called for in the recipe has meant that I am not a fan, oops. I have a huge pan of it, too! GAH!
Besides, it overflowed and my oven floor now needs a cleaning (and the house got rather burnt sugar smoky). That shows me, yet again, that fruit in the oven, no matter what form it takes, requires a cookie sheet on the shelf below.
Ah, well, all of life is an experiment.
4. I had a number of visitors and phone calls, which meant my mad preserving efforts only ran at half speed. Friends: can't preserve with them, can't live without them.... Ha!
One friend was needing some advice about a very unacceptable contract renewal offered by her job of 7 years (the bosses clearly want to avoid going to a lawyer to ensure they aren't setting themselves up for future problems, and also clearly want to avoid paying her both what she is worth and what she has been historically paid. I am suggesting that she ask them who the lawyer was, who wrote up the contract. I suspect they will admit there wasn't one, and she can take action from that. I think she should request a lawyer vetted contract before she takes it to her own lawyer for advice, no sense paying her own lawyer to tell her bosses all the places they are courting future employment law issues!!). That convo took a while.
Another couple, both friends, were calling me about an event in which we are all involved with the planning and promoting. Somehow I am the tech person for this whole group, as well as the opinion person, as in: 'ask Ecoteri, she'll know... This was time consuming and yet satisfying .. but the tomatoes under my kitchen table remain ignored.
5. I got an unexpected WhatsApp call from #2 son, from his bed in Switzerland. He was just going to sleep when I had sent him a message, and he (!!!) decided to call me!. I answered in a video call, although he stayed on audio – and while we talked I got a huge bucket of tomatillos de-papered, which he found entertaining. I usually have my hands busy when he is visiting in person, too. The call totally made my day, even before all my friends started to show up and call. #2 is a lovely and loving son, though a very inconsistent communicator, which made this call even more precious.
The less light that gets in your eyes when you are trying to go back to sleep, the better. I know our house (with the small amount of light from outside through the windows) so well that I don't have to turn on the lights when I go to the bathroom in the dark.
I also try to open only one eye which somehow signals the brain that it is not time to wake up yet.
Yeah, I live in the country so very little outside light, and I only have a downstairs kitchen over the stove light on which echos faintly up the stairs. I too know my old house and upstairs is quite uncluttered enroute to the bathroom, so no lights go on for me, ever. I once had an Ex all excited about automating the house and he had the bathroom lights TURN ON if you walked in. I was enraged the first time, because not only did it turn on for me, it did for him, too, and the light bounced around the bedroom. You will notice he is an Ex, LOL
I tend to be reading books with only a small lamp, later at night, so am not getting tv or computer light into my eyeballs, either. I think I just need to work my body hard most days and fall into bed really tired!
1. Every 6 weeks or so we drive 45 minutes to a place we are trying to sell so we can do a little cleanup and mainly just check on it. Often we go out for lunch but, this time, packed sandwiches, fruit and had a picnic in a nearby park. There is a couple who put in an offer for it yesterday. They wanted to go at $25,000 below our already low price. We did a counter offer reducing it $10,000 so we will see today what happens.
2. We got gas at Costco for $4.99. It sounds like a lot but is at least $5.50 everywhere else in the area.
3. While at Costco we purchased TP. I have read that the price is going to go way up due to the Canada thing. Today I will change my search engine from Google to something else because the idiots have changed the name of Lake Ontario on their maps.
4. Our bank branch is closing and informed us that we need to empty our safe deposit box. We opted for purchasing a home safe as it will save much money in the long run.
5. I will be bringing 2 bags of items to an American Cancer Assoc. thrift store. We are trying to declutter in anticipation of a move in four months. I am also mending a few socks today.
You will not regret a home safe. If in a basement, make sure on a platform off the floor in case of a water "event".
Crossing my fingers for you!
I wanna see two official BEFORE and AFTER shots with your great new bathroom light fixture fully installed. The best use of $3.50, ever! How satisfying.