Today was an almost completely free day. I had no commitments other than ferrying my son to work and back. No responsibilities, no worries.
So what did I do? Did I book a pedicure and lunch? Did I go shopping?
No way! I luxuriated in a wash of enjoyable frugal activities, which means that I:
- Washed two loads of laundry (in cold water using my homemade detergent) and hung them on the clothesline.
- Sorted through my husband’s nine pairs of identical worn out jeans. He was allowed to keep five. (Seriously, dude. Get a grip!)
- Donated the jeans to Goodwill. (They sell worn out jeans to companies that manufacture blue jean insulation.)
- Picked up a free cookie for my hard working son from Grand Central Bakery. (Their Tweets for Treats program is worth following!)
- Talked to my next-door-neighbor about combining our garbage service. (This would save us both a bunch of money!)
- Talked to my husband about canceling our home phone and going to cel phone only. (Again, a big money saver!)
- Dropped off library books and brought home a huge stack for our looming vacation. This includes audio books for the car and trashy novels for me!
- Watched two DVD episodes of HBO’s True Blood, which I have from the library. (Worry not, this was not with the kids.)
- Watered plants with the cooled down leftover water from boiling corn on the cob.
- Called my step-mother to ask if they still had my old desk from high school. They did, which means I found a free desk for my high schooler to use in his bedroom.
- Made a reservation to stay one night at Great Wolf Lodge. This is not cheap, but I found an online code that gave us a 20% discount. Plus, we have the money saved up for it from our garage sales.
This was a fairly typical day for my family, puttering around and enjoying the process of our lives. And our frugal activities are so ingrained in our lives as to seem completely seamless.
Happy to have the freedom to live frugally. Happy to be me.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without”
{ 24 comments… read them below or add one }
Had to laugh when I read the part about watering the plants with cold corn water… that was a must when I was growing up. My mom and grandma believed that there was some extra nutrition in the water from the corn. I don’t know if that is true, but we always waited and dumped the water on the porch plants.
I so love to read your blog. You inspire me, as I am a frugal kindred spirit. Thank you for your posts and keep up the good work!
Katy,
I notice you hang your shirts on hangers to dry, which would save time in putting away the laundry. My question is after your shirts are dry do you not get those hanger bumps on the shoulders?
It’s really not an issue. And the hangers make it possible to hang very large amounts of laundry in a small area.
Katy
Sounds like you had a great day! I have been following your blog for a while now. I used to live in the USA now I live is Ecuador. I want to find ways to be frugal here but I don’t believe they use coupons and I haven’t noticed any yard sales, not even a thrift store. I like the Market here the produce is much better than the store and cheaper. I think they have a recycling program but I have to learn more about it.
Trying to be frugal in Ecuador.
My neighbor and I share trash pick-up. Between the two households, we have 3 adults, 2 teenagers, 4 cats, 1 dog and a hedgehog. The only drawbacks–my house generates extra trash at Christmas, and we end up putting out an extra can (for an extra charge.) We also get a bit backed-up with yard debris during our gardening months. Those are minor issues, and we both love saving the money.
I mentally cannot let go of my home phone. I can’t explain it, but I’ve yet to get past that mental block. I’m working on it, though!
My husband won’t let go of our landline either!! We NEVER use it and the only people who call are the local newspaper and every once in a while his mom when she can’t get us on either cell.
In September our contract is up (I think) and I’m determined to get him to cancel it. But we made the big jump of canceling cable earlier this year so I think he needed time to adjust. At this point it’s only $10 a month so I’m not too stressed, but it’s annoying to have to spend $10 a month on something we don’t use.
Awesome! We had a very similar weekend. Line drying, good-will runs, freezing berries for the coming winter, and stocking up for my exploits in canning using my Amazon Reward Bucks. Automatic frugality is the best kind.
I spent yesterday visiting my mom and my two younger sisters. We folded laundry, taught the youngest an easier way to get the fitted sheet on her bed, took a long walk with the dog since it was the first cool day in weeks thanks to the rain, ate a simple dinner together, and watched a movie on the couch. It’s probably one of the best days this summer in its ordinary pleasures.
We canceled our home phone (and cable service) and went to only cell phones about a year ago. It has saved us a lot of money and we have never had a problem with not having a landline.
We did something a bit different with our land line. We kept our internet connection through our local phone company. (They have the market cornered being the only providers in our area.) But we had them disconnect our land line…bringing our bill WAY down. The kicker is that we can still receive incoming calls or use the land line to dial 911. Everybody still calls us at our old number, and we use our prepaid cell phone to call them. So in a way, you can ditch your land line and have it too. The phone company doesn’t charge you for the incoming calls and by law, have to allow you the free use of 911.
That is great information. The ability to call 911 and have our house automatically show up has been what has made me hesitant to dump the land line. (My husband works in emergency services, so we’re hyper-aware of this necessity.)
Katy
Just curious – was the garage sale a success? I saw your day one post, but if there was a second post, I missed it. What did you do with the remains, if any?
We made $350, which I consider to be a success, as we didn’t have much in the way of big ticket items. I brought the leftovers first to a consignment shop, (which garnered an extra $11.40) and then to Goodwill.
Katy
Katy, that’s good info about the used blue jeans. my husband has several pair that are worn and I may have thrown them away if you hadn’t mentioned that. I also have other worn out clothing, and I typically stuff it into one of the ‘for profit’ clothes boxes I see around town, hoping they can recycle it somewhere along the line.
I am considering altering my trash pickup. It costs me $400 a year, not unreasonable considering gas prices, but unreasonable considering we usually have one bag a week. There is a transfer station not far away, and I plan to ask how much it costs to dump a bag. alternatively, I have a friend with a business and a dumpster, and I may ask if I can dump my trash there for a small fee.
In my experience, volume and sound quality are better with land lines. All the better to chat with those who have hearing issues and also have land lines.
I love “enjoying the process of our lives.” A lovely way to phrase it!
In our house, it’s my husband and t-shirts! 🙂
We share garbage pickup with *two* neighbors–it’s great! We had to switch to a company that allows weekly recycling, since that is always overflowing. We just cut our landline, too. I was quite nervous about it for some reason. We kept our phone number, but it now transfers to my husband’s I-Phone (which I have possession of while he visits family). He transferred his business phone number to Google voice. I’m not quite sure how all that works (the Google voice part), but our monthly phone/internet bill has dropped from near $90 down to $20 (after lots of annoying haggling over internet plans). When he returns and reclaims the phone I figure we’ll need to get another cell phone of some sort. Any frugal ideas??
You are really going to enjoy the Great Wolf Lodge. We discovered this chain while we were driving cross country (moving due to my hubbys job) with our two boys. What a great way for kids cooped up in the car all day to unwind and get all that pent up energy out. They did sleep well after the water park. Enjoy your stay.
We went two years ago and had a blast. The kids have been begging to return ever since.
Katy
Sounds like a perfect day to me Katy! I too had a frugal day in that I saved almost £7 from making three small purchasing decisions. It wasn’t until I relayed my (very exciting haha!) day to the Hubby I realised what I had saved.
1. didn’t purchase a lemon to be sliced in my jug of water = 29p
2. didn’t purchase 2 x bottles of alcoholic ginger beer that looked scrummy sitting on the shelf in Home Bargains £3.38
3. Purchased one portion of fish and chips for me and the Kids after swim lessons to share instead of the usual two and we still struggled to eat it all between us anyway £3.20
Total £6.87
Oh and I resisted purchasing some bikini bottoms off the web, I’ll make do with one swimsuit on hols – can only wear one at a time after all!
Have a super frugal day xx
Just fyi I think you have the best header I’ve ever seen. I love it so much!!
Thank you, I have to agree!
Katy
Ah, that sounds like such a satisfying day.