Four Frugal Things -- Custom Wastebaskets & Forbidden Goodwill Items
1) I ran a few errands on my way to visit with my mother, which included at stop at my recently discovered plum tree.
I picked almost six pounds without making a dent in what was available.
It occurred to me that a plums and blackberries are complimentary flavors, so I swung around to my secret blackberry patch. Sadly, they were still all shriveled up. I'd hoped that last week's precipitation might've helped.
Nope!
This was my entire harvest.
2) I leafed through a pair of Elle Decor magazines that I pulled from an after-garage sale free box.
I know they say 25¢, but that's a bit rich for my blood. What am I, a Rockefeller?!
I go into these periodicals fully aware that they shine a spotlight on a level of wealth that's almost laughable. However, sometimes you can glean ideas and inspiration that translate to a lower budget. Think paint colors or how the furniture is arranged. Maybe even to just hone my eye for high end brands to look for when thrifting.
But nothing could have prepared me for this trash can:
"When custom isn't an option."
WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK?!
Who is getting custom garbage cans?! I looked it up and the Perigot Frisbee trash can sold for 359 Euros, which converts to $416.91. Again, who is getting custom trash cans?
Do you remember when I found a rusty Restoration Hardware wastebasket in a free pile that I brought home to refurbish?
The closest thing currently on the Restoration Hardware website is this $469 version. On sale, down from $905!
I joked with my husband that we can always sell the wastebasket if times get tough.
3) I had fifteen minutes to kill near a Goodwill Outlet bins store, so I popped in to see if I could find something to resell in that short amount of time.
I came across this new looking Clevr Plus baby carrier backpack, ($135 new) which I brought to the cashier, hoping to get a set price. (They'll do that for larger items at our bins.) Unfortunately this item triggered their "we can't sell that" policy and I had to hand it over. I understand that this is a safety policy, but it still stung as I checked it wasn't part of any recalls.
I walked out without buying anything, which is a first.
4) I watched a couple episodes of The Paper, (spinoff of The Office) through a friend's Peacock account. I was happy to see the actor Matt Braunger in a recurring role, as I spent a couple years babysitting for his family when he was a preschooler.
My babysitting plays no role in his success, but I'm always happy when people reach their goals. I looked at his IMDB account and see that he'll be in multiple episodes this season.
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."
Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Instagram.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.
Unbelievable. A wastebasket? That's funny. Is that your emergency fund? LOL
1. I'm home recovering from several days helping my daughter with a landscaping project. I flew to Reno using credit card points.
2. I brought a water bottle and plane snacks. I did buy a cup of coffee and a bagel during a layover which wasn't too bad.
3. I helped my daughter pull out sod and put in plants at her home that she rents out. Paying for lawn maintenance was costing them a fortune. Removing the sod and adding DG (decomposed granite) instead will pay them back in just a few months.
4. I just finished reading a library book on my kindle. The Names by Florence Knapp. I wasn't too enthused about reading it since it didn't sound that interesting but boy was I wrong. It was so good.
5. My mom watched my dog for me while I was out of town. They love each other so it wasn't too much to ask. I offered to pay her but she refused. I took her to lunch at one of her favorite places instead.
1. I stopped by the deli to say hello to my former boss and order a sandwich. Before I left, she gave me two packages of slightly expired (by a couple of days) European cookies. My favorites.
2. I stopped by The Salvation Army Store to see if they had any glass pitchers for making iced tea. They didn't but I left with two L.L. Bean long sleeved t-shirts in excellent condition and a cozy sweater for the upcoming cold weather. These were all on the half-price rack so my total was $9.
3. A friend lended me a book: Henry by Katrina Shawver about a young Polish man from Krakow who was arrested and sent to Auschwitz. How he survived the brutality and starvation is riveting but I must admit I need a break from reading it every thirty or forty pages. The abject cruelty to fellow human beings is unimaginable.
4. The local animal control officer is online begging people to foster some of the cats at the shelter and/or to donate some food and supplies. I have a cat Bear who does not like other cats in any sense of the word so fostering is out for us. I did go to the shelter's wish list and purchased a case of the desired cat food in cans. I had an $8 off $40 coupon at Pet Supplies Plus so that helped. I dropped it off at the police station where I noticed other donations too.
5. I'm still picking about a cup of raspberries a day from my yard but we have had several bouts of rain the last couple of weeks so I'm sure that helps.
Re: your #4, Christine, I'll be with NDN1 on Sunday at a "Meet and Greet" that her assisted living facility is hosting with our local SPCA. NDN1 will be absolutely thrilled--and I just know I'm going to be tempted to adopt one of the animal visitors. However, my Betty is like your Bear: She's almost 15 years old and enjoys being an only cat. So I'll follow your example and do some donations instead.
A. Marie, I'm happy you caught a case of my love and concern for animals although I have a strong feeling you already had it! I know I've mentioned before I think we're kindred spirits in many ways. Nice too, you're going to the event to enjoy it with NDN1.
Our house came with a pullout cabinet that holds plastic trash cans for trash and recycling. It's great but I sure hope that I'm not guilty of owning a custom garbage can.
1. Prepared a spreadsheet of our monthly water usage (we're billed quarterly by our city). I'm especially interested in the trends in water usage when we're away for the winter (while someone watches the house) and when I did sponge baths vs. my typical long showers for two months. I guess I miss data analysis from my working days! I'm wondering how much water I could save by not flushing the toilet as often. Frankly, I pee a lot and I flush every time. Several years ago, I was at a friend's house (two adults and three kids) where they practiced "If it's yellow, let it mellow; if it's brown, flush it down." The urine smell throughout the house was overwhelming.
2. Received some partially used cereal from Buy Nothing that no one else wanted. It's not very good but I am powering through to avoid waste.
3. Watched the Bad Faith documentary on Tubi, a free service, about Christian Nationalism. Scary and depressing.
4. Received a $5 voucher from the Friends of the Library after I renewed my annual membership. Redeemed it for books for our travels and a gift for a friend who is recovering from surgery.
5. Gas was an eye-popping $4.39/gallon and I received 20 cents off per gallon using a discount card.
Two yellows and it is time to flush. And I presume the toilet paper did not go in the bowl?
I don't think the urine smell in that house was from what was in the toilet. We, and many people we know, follow the "if it's yellow let it mellow" and I have not smelled anything unpleasant in the house. And we have an adult daughter who would DEFINITELY tell me if our house smelled.
The only frugal things I did today were to get free coffee and tea at my mother's assisted living, and to serve leftovers for dinner.
Oh, and I sold a curb picked item for $25 on fb marketplace.
The rest of the day was reading to grandkids, getting ready for grandkids visit, food shopping, baking and hospice visit. The foot I had surgery on is telling me I've done too much today.
Katy, you might consider making some of those plums into a plum torte, which the NY Times Cooking section says is its most requested recipe of all time (https://tinyurl.com/ys6fn4cd).
And I've just discovered an evidently neglected peach tree in the 'hood. Peaches are sort of marginal for our USDA zone, and I'm not sure whether these will be any good, but I've brought a couple home to try.
Ooh . . . thanks for sending this my way!!!
A. Marie,
I was just thinking about the NYT plum torte when I saw Katie's plums! I've never made it, but now I think I need to find some nice plums to try it.
I am SOOO glad you went back for the plums - they look delicious!. My purple plums, alas, are done. Mostly eaten and dehydrated but I didn't get to them all, my bad. the chickens enjoyed their treat, though.
I have some green ones in the fridge that are addictive, if I start eating them before I notice I have eaten 12 or more. Good thing my guts respond positively to the fibre!
Our blackberries still have some that aren't shrivelled, but they are not tasty - kind of watery and bland. The season is over, Katy and Ecoteri! So I need to enjoy what I have frozen or made into jam, and next summer will be here in a heartbeat....
As for wastebaskets, ugh. I have a sad stainless one in my kitchen that has a lid that is supposed to lift up when you press on a foot peda; it is broken, alas.
It boggles the mind at the obscene excessiveness of extravagant trash receptacles. Makes me love my great grandmother's French flower bucket lined with a bread bag ALL the more!
Nice haul of plums. So cool you found via urban foraging.
I put up 12 pints pickled beets. Will saute the beet greens for dinner tonite.
Oh my GOSH, thank you for the update about that show The Paper! I didn't realize the new second season had just been released already (just recently, it looks like). We loved watching season 1 and have watched it a couple times thru already. It's so fun! Gonna have to watch the first episode of season 2 tonight!!
Today is my bday but we celebrated really simply yesterday, which was the best weather all week. We went to a very cute farm town that’s 20-30 minutes from here. Lunch at a bakery where we split a sandwich along with sweet potato fries (my indulgent favorite). I picked out a pretty folk art vintage vase for my gift.
Greatest gift ever was the result of, what is probably, my last CATscan.
No hint of cancer coming back and now it has been five years! So ‘yahoo’ big time. If this could be any inspiration or help to anyone, it was a bad type and I thought I was a goner.
The waste paper basket - I have a friend who is always buying high end stuff and wants to give it to me after a year so she can get something new. I feel like I’m enabling her buying problem if I take these things but sometimes I have.
Due to recommendations here I put the Calamity Club on hold at the library. A very long wait I’m afraid. It must be really good.
Having issues with the people who want to buy our condo. It is in great shape but they have found tiny things wrong and want us to reduce our price. About ready to give up.
Beth, happy birthday! (It's mine, too.) Glad you had a fun celebration and a clean scan!
Happy Birthday to you, too. Hope it was a fun one! Thank you.
Happy Birthday to both you and Beth!
Happy Birthday, Beth and MB!
Remember it is your birthday season, celebrate until you've had your fill!
BethK and MB inn MB, Happy birthday to both of you. May this be the year all your dreams come true!
Cheers to both Beth and MB on their birthdays, and to Beth on her clean CAT scan!
Good to hear your CATscan is clear! To get past the 5 year mark without a recurrence is such good news.
Happy birthday and many congratulations on your scan!
Beth K,
Happy birthday, and hooray for a clean CAT scan! I loved The Calamity Club - and you might already know this - it is a loooong book, I think 600+ pages? I read the e-book via Libby, and it tells you what percent of the book you've read - I felt like I kept reading and reading and reading - what do you mean, I've only read 17% of the book?!? Ha ha. It goes fast, though.
Happy birthday and I LOVE the gift you got (the CATscan one). YAY!
OMG! I did not realize what a peasant I am not to have a zillion-dollar designer garbage can. I should rectify this faux pas immediately! LMAO.
1. Put up the outdoor solar lights that come on a dusk. I don't get off until 8 pm and, with summer ending, it is getting dark by the time I get home. The solar lights save me about 4 hours of regular electricity when I work a 5 hour evening shift. No need to leave the porch light on.
2. Made a homemade sign saying "Trump can't buy my vote!" out of scraps of cardboard using Sharpie pen.
3. Frugal victory: IRS sent me a letter saying that I do NOT owe them an extra thousand dollars!!!!! So I'm paid up until next April 15.
4. Astound came out today and I have new, better internet, WiFi and landline phone service. The latter is $13/month, much cheaper than mobile. I even have 2 frequencies for my WiFi, whereas Spectrum only provided me with one and it kept going out. But trying to get Spectrum to end my service was like trying to talk sense into a Trump supporter! Horrors! I finally told the guy that he could offer me a million bucks and I still would not keep or renew Spectrum, not ever.
5. Did not add to the $40 billion deficit by offering all adult citizens $5,000 if the Republicans win the midterms.
Lisa, like you, my vote is not for sale! Unfortunately, I live in a nest of MAGAs and don't want to put a sign up due to fear of my house getting targeted. That's all okay though because my vote is more powerful than their weapons.
Amen, Christine!
I also live in a red state and went ahead and put bumper stickers on my car. If I don't park where it can be easily seen, it'll get keyed and scratched up. I don't care, I will get the message out.
BTW, everyone, and especially my fellow Texans and Americans, please, please, please go online to You Tube and watch Jimmy Kimmel's interview of James Talarico!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It will lift your spirits.
And if you live in Texaa make sure y ou are still rlegistered to vote. Frankly everyone should check the address is correct so you can vote on November 3. Im going to vote in person the first day of early in person voting in my state since I do not trust the post office to deliver my ballot this year.
Years ago, when we were the only Democrats on the street, I put up a large John Kerry sign in the yard. Someone left the roadway and deliberately drove through our yard to mow it down. After thst we switched to magnet bumper stickers because smashing a bumper would involve talking to the police!
Ruby, you and I may need to have a private discussion at some point about politics in your area. One reason I got out of Dodge so fast you couldn't see me for dust 54 years ago was the politics--and things have gotten far, far worse since then. Moreover, my second sister's latest ex-husband (this is #5 to date) is a member of a lethally prominent local political family, although neither he, my sister, nor their son share their views. My nephew, in fact, has gone so far as to drop his last name and go by only his first and middle names (professionally and, I believe, legally).
Yeah, it's a deeply divided place. The university puts a blue dot in a deep red ocean, but outside of that it's downright scary. We moved here from north Georgia, where it really was not any better. That's where our yard sign was the victim of a hit and run.
We do live in a great neighborhood, which is racially diverse, friendly, and has three same sex households, which is a lot for a very small neighborhood.
I might have a custom trash can, as years ago DH built a wooden base to hold a pair of skinny, step-to-open Rubbermaid trash cans in their spot by the back door. One is for trash and the other is for recycling. When the foot pedal wore out on the trash can, we swapped places with the recycling can and screwed a handle on the lid to open it. So $22 spent 14 years ago plus a couple of bucks for bespoke customization. Living large here! 😀
I love that you found free plums! What bounty!
I can finally report that I'm starting to feel better now that I am beginning my second day without Paxlovid. I told a friend that I'm betting that it will take a week to get back to normal. And I didn't die of COVID! Yay!
My Bunn coffee maker hasn't been used all week, and I didn't think to turn it off. This morning it put out a sorry amount of coffee. I had to read up on how to replenish the tank. I still managed to overdo it and got water all over the counter, but hey, the counter is really clean now.
I have designated two tasks today: clean and disinfectant the bathroom floor, and catch up on my financial spreadsheets. My finances are on autopilot, but my spreadsheets give me a good overview of where I stand financially.
I am also planning on having a real breakfast today -- eggs and toast and applesauce. My stomach is finally feeling settled.
Glad you're feeling better, Beth!
I wonder if you could trash pick that carrier later? You know, if time & energy were no object.
I hauled home a.load of free.native grass bales. Hoping to feed the cows on the cheap.and bolster my stand of native grass.
Dug potatoes, picked a couple butternut squash, and dug random beets that we had missed. Half the beets are worked up and frozen. I'll do the rest today.
I found a piglet on the side of the road. It fell off a factory farm semi, I suppose. Anyway, it's my new chore. The milk replacer is basically egg nog and it eats 1.5 pints daily. When she reaches 25#, I'll take her to my Dad's to live with his outdoor hogs. It's not frugal, but I couldn't leave her there. She's about 3 weeks old and about 5-10#. My Dad raised hogs when I was growing up and we let the sows mother the piglets. As they should!!! We'd never wean a pig that small. Cheap food isn't cheap! The costs are externalized to the land, animals, and community. This little pig is emblematic of the larger issues surrounding industrial food.
I didn't buy internet crap that was accidentally flown into a van load of innocent cleaning people.
Aww. Good for you for rescuing the little piglet. That’s quite a curb find!
I found a goat on the side of the road last week, but I knew which farm to shoo it towards!
Little pig wound up at the right household. Our neighbors when I was a little girl got a piglet that same way. He was the friendliest, smartest little fellow.
Hurray for the piglet rescue, Laura! Good points about industrial hog rearing, too.
And on a lighter note as a Charlotte's Web fan, I was hoping you might name it Wilbur--but I see by the "her" that it might have to be Wilburette.
Designer trash cans?! I feel like I need to just start slapping the word 'designer' on things and making a fortune. I feel like a pun about 'filthy rich' or 'rich trash' would be appropriate but I'm too flabbergasted to whip one up.
Funny and punny!
1. I made a chocolate cottage cheese cake. I don't like cottage cheese but my doctor, friends and sister keep telling me how good it is for me. I am told this cake tastes just like cheese cake. I will let you know. I am down over 50 pounds and still going.
2. The person from marketplace showed up late but at least they showed up. $20 in my pocket.
3. I went to a friend's house to visit her and her elderly dog. He isn't doing good. I got lots of kisses. He is 16.5.
4.Hubby had free breakfast at work yesterday. They get bagels and fruit on Thursdays. He keeps a DF cream cheese there.
5. Picked lots of veggies from the garden. Now I have to figure out what to cook with them all. Good problem to have.
Kay, good job on the plums!
Is there any way they could be harvested and taken to a soup kitchen or homeless shelter?
I make a plum/peach kuchen that is super rich but super good.
Shortbread crust pushed into pan, cover with sliced plums and then a sugar cream filling poured over a sprinkle of nutmeg and bake until done..... it is so good.
Plums also pair well with candied ginger.....I love plums.
Garden is down to tomatoes and peppers, and hoping the sweet potatoes produce well.
Cucumbers are still producing stragglers although I don't know how looking at the vines...using what I get to make bread and butter pickles. Small amounts at a time.
Talked to my firewood provider yesterday and the new price is eye-watering....I do get a bit of a break because I am a long-time customer. Between it and propane staying warm this winter is going to be expensive.
I live in a very "tRump" area and cannot chance putting anything up that is against him because of retaliation but I can and do use my vote and my voice.
I still hate him and everything he stands for, that will never change.
JC
I found both a pear tree and an apple tree on the local high school's grounds. Hubby and I were helping out with some marching band props, and the trees were behind us. I took a few pears and a few apples - both delicious, though the apples are very hard and tart/sweet (just the way I like them). I probably should ask permission to gather more, but really, no one seems to care about these trees, and what I'm picking up if what falls on the ground, soooo.....:-)