Four Frugal Things -- a Lunar Eclipse & Hippo Hardware
1) My sister and I walked over to a nearby elementary school to get a clear view of last night's lunar eclipse. As you can see, we weren't the only neighbors to choose this spot.
I brought our Trail Blazers Leupold binoculars, which my husband was given as a thank you for saving someone's life back in 2013. (He works as a first responder, but this was while playing soccer.) I was able to share the binoculars, so everyone was able to get a better view of the moon's shadowy magic.
2) We hit up Hippo Hardware in the afternoon, as my sister is looking to replace her kitchen cupboards knobs. They didn't have what she wanted in stock, (hexagonal black ceramic knobs) but we still explored the store, which is an almost endless maze of old house goodness. The lighting section alone is worth the visit!
I enjoyed that they had my bedroom's light shade in multiple colors. I thrifted it a long time ago, likely for $2.99.
I also brought in a vintage bathroom shade from my parents' basement and got $5 in store credit, which my sister used to buy some cute vintage wall hooks.
3) I cooked up the leftover bacon from the the previous night's dinner to make open face bagel BLTs. The tomatoes are from my sister's NYC garden and the lettuce was from the Pumpkin Patch farm store.
Sadly we're now out of bacon.
4) We stopped into the Mill End Fabric Store before visiting with our mother and I was freshly appreciative of the huge bag of embroidery floss I once thrifted for five bucks or so.
It'll be a very long time before I have to start paying $1.30 per skein!
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'm so glad you got to see (and then share!) the eclipse! I couldn't keep my eyes open last night for long enough to stay up and go try and see it for myself. I'm still under the weather, unfortunately.
1. I've finished "Ward D" by Freida McFadden and I enjoyed some of the twists and the suspense but I didn't feel like the interactions between patients and staff felt realistic. I'm also not sure that a psych ward would feel quite so open and loosey goosey about patients just wandering around at all times, but I don't have anything to back that up.
2. I didn't dwell long though as I then downloaded "Forget Me Not" by Stacy Willingham and finished it just before putting my daughter down for a nap. Also twisty and enjoyable!
3. My husband casually mentioned that the cafeteria would be having some kind of steak or shrimp for lunch today. Thank goodness it's free! I had leftover mac and cheese lol the kids wanted sandwiches.
4. For my birthday I was sent a prepaid visa card and decided to splurge and treat myself! MeUndies was having a 50% off promo so I am soon to be the owner of new bras, underwear, a shirt, and a pair of joggers. I qualified for free standard shipping. I wasn't about to *pay* for shipping! The washer/dryer in Belgium did a number on my bras and underwear and some are barely hanging together.
5. I dusted the blinds today. I figure since I'm already stuffed up from my cold then stirred up dust might help me sneeze it out! Maybe the same logic will apply with a good vacuuming? Better test it out before I get too tired.
We couldn't see the eclipse or the blood red moon due to cloud cover. Clouds but no rain!
1. Opened what I thought was junk mail and found a $16 refund check from the oral surgeon's office. (Or maybe it was from the tooth fairy, LOL!) Ran to the bank and deposited it right away.
2. Finally made it to the suburban library and renewed my card so I can get Hoopla -- e-books and movies for free. Also made it to their coffee corner for a free cup, and plenty of condiments.
3. Frugal fail: En route home, stopped by a pizza place that had a banner advertising a $5.99 lunch special. But was given a $16 bill. Next time, I'll go to Cici's.
4. Used a dishpan to wash a few non-dishwasher safe items. Once the water cooled, I poured it out on some plants on the patio.
5. Did not think that signing an executive order would rename a body of water.
FFT, JASNA BFF's Visit, Part 1:
First, Katy, I'm delighted that you've been having such good times with your sister. And I hope your back is better.
(1) JASNA BFF--who arrived Thursday of last week--and I ate all but two of our meals at home. BFF is not a foodie and likes her food simple; I was happy to oblige.
(2) During our Friday morning of shopping on the Boulevard (Ollie's and Clothes Mentor), I picked up BFF's expenses in order to get the points on my Ollie's Army membership and my CM account, and to use my 15% off birthday coupon at CM. BFF, in return, paid for my restaurant lunch at the actual Triple Birthday Celebration with JASNA Panera in the next city over on Saturday.
(3) We had Friday lunch with NDN1 and CF at my local Panera. CF not only generously picked up our lunches, but gave us each a Jane Austen tote bag and a t-shirt with a cartoon of a bicycling lady frog carrying numerous shopping bags, captioned, "We Thrift at Dawn!" I laughed so hard over the t-shirt that I'm afraid I startled several customers at other tables.
(4) We wound up Friday with the obligatory stop at my local Wegmans (the biggest store by square footage in the whole chain), where BFF was sad to find that her beloved Marathon bread has been discontinued, but managed to get into good trouble in the bakery department anyway.
(5) The three of us spent so long gossiping and laughing and opening presents at our TBC lunch on Saturday that we didn't get out of the restaurant till 2 pm--which didn't leave enough time to visit the museum BFF wanted to see and still get back to my own city before dark. So we adjourned to the new indie bookstore across from the restaurant (which has the delightful name of The Unreliable Narrator and is decidedly GLBTQ+ friendly) and spent some quality browsing time there instead. No regrets.
To be continued.
Your BLT looks really good. It's one of my favorite sandwiches -- open or closed!
I took the train to the hospital this morning to get my mammogram. On the way back, I found some large heavy-duty plastic bags folded up, sitting on a platform bench. I thought they had the Amazon logo, but I didn't look too closely, because when I got them home, I saw that they said CTA. Oops! I hope I didn't take something they were going to use.
I went to the library on the way home, returning two books, and checking out two more that were recommended here -- The Keeper, and Daughters of the Sun and Moon. I've started reading the latter, and it's riveting!
I ignored the cute restaurants and came home to eat yogurt, peanuts and raisins.
I ran a load of laundry, noticing that I'm low on quarters, so I'll have to get more, or learn how to use the app. I'm stretching my laundry days five or six days apart. I'm curious to see if this will offset the higher price to run the machines.
1. DH found seven golf balls on the road near a golf course and few miles from our house.
2. I made a new treat for when I'm craving something sweet: mixing about a teaspoon of real maple syrup into a cup of coffee. It tastes richer than sugar.
3. I'm wearing an outfit of thrifted clothes. DH told me I look very nice. Win-win for my ego and my wallet.
4. I picked more raspberries from the bushes in the yard. Free fruit is delicious.
5. I decluttered my jewelry box. I have four necklaces, two bracelets and a couple of pins to donate to my church's thrift shop. It feels good to let things go I no longer use. I also decluttered some paperwork, expired insurance policies and old receipts.
That Hippo Hardware store looks like a place my husband would LOVE! He does repairs and remodels and likes to keep things vintage when he can.
1. I used a coupon code for free Shutterfly shipping
2. Sold a storage container for $10
3.Batched errands
4. Getting watermeloms and cantaloupe from the garden
5. Started some seeds for a fall garden
https://practicalwalk.com/2026/08/28/frugal-five-gardening-with-the-heat/
1. I booked a hotel room up north in October to visit during the peak color season of fall. I booked through my credit card's travel site to take advantage of the $100 yearly cash back offer that expires in November. I chose a cheaper but nice hotel that is slightly out of town and of course has breakfast.
2. I canceled a car rental for next week when I visit my daughter. She bought an old car with low miles for cheap. She's staying in Reno at her house that they rent out. I'll be helping her with some stuff. She and her husband took one car. Her husband is driving their car to Alaska for three weeks so she was planning to be car less. That saves me a few hundred dollars.
3. I sold a few things on Ebay that I listed this week. I packed them up with recycled shipping materials and requested a pick up from the post office.
4. I didn't rename any Great Lakes this week.
1. We got back from our vacation to Quebec province and we we spent almost exactly (a bit under) the amount for which I had budgeted. All of our lodging was paid for by a bank promotion (if you leave a certain amount of money and have direct deposit for 3 months).
2. The 3 months just ended 2 days ago, and meanwhile I received another offer from a different bank, so I'll switch over as soon as bank one gives me the $$$. This may be the easiest $1600 that I have ever made.
3. To save money on vacation, we walked most places and in Montreal, we took the metro 3 times. We drank the coffee that our Airbnb left us and skipped breakfasts (but indulged in lunch and dinner, and there was nothing frugal about that, except for one afternoon when we hit up a "happy hour" at a pub).
4. Our house/cat sitter often leaves leftover food behind (long story) and this time she left 2 open jars of Rao's (including Bolognese) and 2 eggplants. My partner refuses to eat anything from a jar that she leaves behind (no idea why), so I made 2 small eggplant and noodle lasagnas for when I'm at the work apartment. The parm and pecorino and egg were free from mystery shops, so I estimated that the per serving cost was about $0.86. I just popped them in the freezer for the coming months, which will be great, since I will be in overtime for the next 7 weeks.
5. Neither our housesitter nor our upstairs neighbors watered the garden while we were gone, nor harvested and produce, so we have inedibly large cucumbers and no tomatoes. But, my partner checked in with his boss and we was able to stop by work and pick up the host CSA box, which had 10 gorgeous heirloom tomatoes in it. I also made a delicious cold soup using the celery and cucumber that housesitter left, and added argula, cilantro, yogurt, and a bit of vinegar and salt. The NutriBullet does a great job of breaking down the celery and I'm pretty sure that body needs this after all of the poutine that was consumed!
I hope there is mayo under the lettuce - even if you do BATs, mayo is a must. We've been out of town and I spy more ripe/ripening tomatoes (slicers and paste) from a window in my house. Suspecting time to share with others as we had four ready to eat when we got back (one has been consumed).
I put cream cheese under everything.