One Frugal Thing — Free Haircut!
by Katy on September 26, 2025 · 26 comments
I got my free Supercuts training center haircut, even though my day was incredibly busy. (So busy that I forgot to take a “before” picture!) The manager told me that a lot of clients don’t even show up for their appointments, which is insane to me as there’s nothing short of a natural disaster that would keep me from my free haircut!
The newly hired stylist was coached by her boss, so there was zero possibility of a botched cut. Plus, the cut was done quickly, so it didn’t eat up my day. I’ve gotten free cuts from beauty schools before and it took a loooooong time, as the students had to get each step approved before moving onto the next step.
As always, I tipped the stylist $5.
Now I’m good to go for six months or so.
Unrelated, but please enjoy that I’m rocking my blood money free American Red Cross Goodr sunglasses!
Now your turn, what frugal things have you been up to?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
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{ 26 comments… read them below or add one }
Haircut looks great!!
1. Continuing to enjoy my neighborhood and all it offers with a new free Zumba class at the library. It was SO fun and even my friend who doesn’t like cardio asked if we could come back next week. We’ll be there!
2. Came home and made peanut butter noodles with the bottom of a jar of peanut butter. They came out great and filling. The sauce came from here (I used chili garlic sauce instead of sriracha and added pasta water to loosen the peanut butter): https://peanutbutterlovers.com/recipes/almost-empty-jar-peanut-butter-sauce/
3. Looking forward to a quiet night in tonight. I love my friends and busy life but sometimes you just need a down day. I’m going to watch TV, play video games, and likely fall asleep early.
4. Big donation day at our local food pantry/free store Sunday. Going to clear out any fall clothes or costumes and bring them over. It’ll be good to get stuff out of the house and know it’s going to good use. They always need reusable bags to pack donations so I’ll be going through those as well.
5. I ordered a new work dress off Poshmark and the seller cancelled the order. Oh well, a disappointment but not the worst thing. I moved the refund into my savings account instead of rebuying something.
What a good idea for the last bit of peanut butter! I’m stealing it!
Love the long layers!
Today is freezing corn and making a big batch of celery soup to can. We grow celery for V-10 juice, this years crop of celery is so yummy, so soup for the win and zero waste.
Picked a bushel of pears to can tomorrow.
Harvested the butternut squash, washed them and they are curing for 10 days in the greenhouse, then to storage/root cellar.
Only came up with 3 things, the day is not over!
1. I just got back from getting my Covid shot, which netted me another 20% off coupon from Walgreens. In the next few days I’ll be thinking over how best to use it.
2. My expected company had to cancel due to a water problem at her house. I’m disappointed, but also somewhat glad, because my budget is shot, and I would have felt bad about spending anything.
3. Logged last week’s flu shot into my Medicare Advantage rewards record — $5 for groceries next time I shop.
4. I found five receipts to scan to Fetch.
5. Frugal fail — burned two homemade personal size pizzas– one was edible, but I threw the other one away.
Oh Katy, you look like one of those “who is that behind those Foster Grants?” advertisements. (Foster Grant sunglasses had glamorous movie stars posing for their full color magazine ads, many years ago.) Hope your stylist got an “A”. She may have launched your modeling career, LOL.
Today I was a frugal superstar, if I may say so myself. I scored a bunch of freebies!
1. I have allowed myself to be “volunteered” to chair the Blessing of the Animals event next month at church. Due to the local fair and rodeo, ours will be about a week or so late, but still I’ve got to get my act in gear. Had the church office make up some brochures for said event. So they paid for the paper, ink and used their printer….I no longer have a working computer printer.
2. Frugal fail update: After my frugal fail ruining the bedroom drapes, I’ve shopped at 2 Walmarts, Target, Ollie’s Outlet, Home Depot and Lowe’s for replacements. Totally struck out. (What’s this thing about grommets all of the sudden? Thought that fad had passed.) I wanted to find some secondhand ones but my windows are horizontal and very wide, so I need 6 panels for each of 2 windows, and all dozen have to match. And they have to be thermal/energy efficient. Little chance of finding that at Goodwill or other thrifts, so I had to (very sadly) shop at stores I’d rather boycott. The good news is: I didn’t buy a thing at any of ’em. Now I’ve got to look online. Does anyone know of a frugal online store for curtains and drapes???
3. Saw a yard sale sign while driving. Stopped in and Eureka! Remember yesterday’s discussion of finding mundane things at such sales? I got a bag full of canned goods, including a Del Monte canned fruit can (which now that DM is kaput, I will wash out and keep for a souvenir pencil holder.) They were 25 cents each. Someone had gotten some donations they didn’t want and put ’em out for sale. At those prices, I’m only too glad to take them off their hands and use them for a future meal. I filled up a plastic grocery bag for $2.25. All food.
I then found a huge bunch of pencils, at least half of them new, rubber banded together for $1; a package of notebook paper and three notebooks for 25 cents each; and more. Our church is collecting school supplies for an urban “Title I” (poverty area) school district. So these items were dropped off at church and will be sent to the school.
Then I found a few more items for myself: a bundle of 3 new dishtowels (the kind that have the crocheted tops you can fasten to cabinet handles) and 2 crocheted potholders for $4. (The craft mall vendors sell these towels for $4 or $5 each.) The yard sale hosts were selling food, including BBQ Sausage on a Stick for $1, and that was my lunch today. Yum!
>>>> BTW, this was a neighborhood yard/garage sale to support one of the residents who is running for school board. All her friends and neighbors got together, brought their discards, and had this huge rummage sale. They had everything from baby play pens to VHS tapes. Proceeds will go toward campaign expenses. Thought that was a nifty idea, and wanted to share it lest any of our NCA friends are wanting to run for office. (The one thing they should’ve done and didn’t: print brochures and give them out to the shoppers who lived in the candidate’s district.)
4. En route home, saw a billboard advertising a senior citizen’s health fair at the local mall. Went there and gathered up 2 bags full of advertising bling. All of it free, including the 2 shopping bags. So heavy I could hardly carry it out. Took the free advertising pens to church for the school supply collection. Gave the secretary some of the notepads. (Hope she is not put off by the fact most of it has the names of nursing homes, funeral homes, hospice, dementia care and other not-so-fun businesses printed on the items.)
Every single table at these events hands out candy. Always. So I grabbed handfuls of same. I’m now supplied with peppermints from now til New Year’s. Took all the other candy to church for our Trunk or Treat activity this Halloween — we were asked to bring candy to help support it. I had to get a plastic bag from the kitchen, one that the red paper cups came in, and I filled it 2/3 full of Tootsie Rolls, Twix, Reeses, gummie bears, Smartees, Dub-L-Bubble, etc. All individually wrapped.
5. I got other items free from the free health fair. I’m keeping the bags of chips and cookies and moon pies that were given out. Free groceries! I’m also keeping the free lip gloss, hand sanitizer, and other useful items. Didn’t need the advertising coffee cups and plastic drink cups, but I will donate those items to Goodwill in exchange for their 20% discount coupon. 😉
And I will recycle all the leaflets and brochures they gave me.
Fru-gal Lisa
I’ve had good luck with a place called Half Priced Drapes. I, also, had a particular need for 10 curtain that matched and were insulated. Found what I wanted for $20 a panel. Not the cheapest, but I got what I wanted
Such a lovely haircut, Katie.
My FFT:
Used a furniture repair marker to fix the tiny puppy tooth marks on the kitchen chair legs. Made up 26 reusable K-cups with some discounted coffee. These are stored in a canister in the freezer so that the coffee stays fresh. Cut off and hemmed a pair of thrift store jeans to fit my shortie self.
Ate rice and beans for lunch. Thoroughly cleaned my house this morning, which included waxing the kitchen floor. There’s my arm workout for the day!
Your hair cut and sunglasses look fabulous!
Katy, you’re stylin’.
Great haircut, Katy. I wish we had a readily accessible Supercuts training center here–but ours is (a) on the other side of the county and (b) apparently only open when the moon is in the seventh house and Jupiter aligns with Mars. (Extra points for any aging hippies who recognize that last line.) So I’m just going to go to my local Supercuts branch next week and get the senior discount.
Now, a Few Frugal Things, Autumn and Aging Hippies Edition:
(1) Thanks to the delicious temperatures we’ve been enjoying for most of September, I haven’t had to turn on either the AC or the heat–and my latest National Grid bill reflects this: My “supply” charges for electricity and gas came to all of $5.11. (Not for the first time, blessings on DH for insisting that we install those solar panels.) Of course, National Greed dinged me an additional $45.48 for “delivery” services, but I’m pretty pleased anyway.
(2) I enjoyed free entertainment this noon courtesy of the local wildlife: a prolonged duel between a juvenile Cooper’s hawk and a flock of crows who weren’t at all pleased with the hawk’s presence. And the hawk was actually sort of playing “chicken” with the crows: Every time the crows would chase it off a tree branch, it’d circle back around and light on another branch. Amazing to watch.
(3) I’m going to the Regional Market tomorrow to take full advantage of the transition zone between summer and fall produce. And I’ll batch this with stops at the local grocery outlet, the adjacent bottle return place, a cheap gas station ($3.20/gallon, our best price at the moment), and Price Chopper.
(4) And on Sunday, I’ll be attending the local “cultural fair” in a neighborhood beloved by all of us aging hippies. Arts, crafts, booths for many worthy organizations, and the annual book sale at the adjacent branch of the city library system. Can’t wait!
@A. Marie Aquarius/Let the Sunshine by The Fifth Dimension. From the musical hair I think. My mother bought the 45.
Oh yeah, I can sing it! Yes, it’s from Hair — which I saw live on my honeymoon back in 1970!
Selena, Beth W, and Fru-gal Lisa, you are all winners! Yes, the song got the most airplay in the Fifth Dimension version, but it was originally from Hair. (Even my relatively laid-back mother wasn’t laid-back enough to take us kids to see Hair on our 1968 trip to NYC, but I acquired the Broadway cast album a year or so later.)
When I was in New York with my Long Time Best Buddy (LTBB) for a whirlwind adventure, we were standing in line at the discount ticket booth in Times Square, hoping to get tickets to some kind of Broadway show. Someone came up to us and gave us tickets to HAIR. Turns out, it was their 500th show (or some such number) and they were unfortunately having to shut down soon after. It was a delight, we knew all the songs, and there was such joy in the theatre as it was FULL with folk who also had received free tickets (great for th actors!)
Due to having older sisters, one a hippee I knew the song. I think they might have bought the cast album too. Used to play their albums on our brother’s stereo that lived in our bedroom. Dbro was in Vietnam then. The 3 girls, me and my 2 sisters shared a room. My sisters are 8 and 9 years older than me and I’m 64 now. My brother turned 80 this month!! Now when the Woodstock album came out we had to listen to it during the day at one sister’s friend’s house when everyone was out working.
We sang a medley from Hair when I was in high school choir. Looking back, our choir director was very hip. We also sang Bohemian Rhapsody.
A. Marie,
Is there an Age of Aquarius discount hairstylin’ school near you? Maybe in Woodstock? LOL! Thanks for the memory!!!
Really envious of the Supercuts training facility. Nothing like that here–even the beauty schools charge the same as Great Clips!
1. I used my bike instead of driving all week, save for one shopping trip where I cadged a ride with one of my sons.
2. Continuing to use the library: finished Jennifer Worth’s “In the Midst of Life”. So good.
3. My school continues to offer free coffee and tea to students, so I’ve been enjoying the selection there; at home, drinking up my considerable stash of teas before buying any new.
4. Eating all food at home or from home–I pack a breakfast before riding in to school, which gives me a nice motivation to get there in good time. So far I haven’t succumbed to the siren call of the vending machines.
5. Found a penny at the bike trail rest stop the other day, so I’ve come into some money. 😉
Picked up our new couch, so comfy!
Mom gave me an old wooden cabinet to store what could no longer fit under our couch. She got it used in the 70’s. I remember our coffee.pot sitting on one corner and her bowling bag living on the bottom cubby, lol. Peeled off the brown contact paper, cleaned the knobs, and painted it gloss black. It holds 3 laundry baskets of food stuffs, a stack of pie plates, and extra linens. For free!
Found .11 in a parking lot.
Grabbed free, expired pain relievers from a free table.
Made 2 sheet cakes.for a church fundraiser. One pan was nwot from the thrift.
Broke the Fram on my truck ): Dh will repair it using plate steel.we already have. I need a new to me truck. Until.one is found, we will repair this one.
Paid extra on the note and cooked from.scratch.
The shelf must be sturdy is your mom stored a bowling ball in the bag in it. Fond memories of your mother too!
I always thought that when I retired I would join a bowling league. Leagues are kinda passe at this point and my knees won’t allow me to play. But we still have a bowling alley down at the bottom of the hill.
My FFT:
1. We are continuing to keep the grocery bill down by eating from our garden. We ate the last of our peaches, but luckily pawpaws are in full swing right now. Also tomatoes, onions, and butternut squash are all still plentiful. There’s a little grumbling about shopping the freezer and pantry however if we aren’t going to eat it then it has to go. No sense keeping it until it expires.
2. I walk 4 miles down our country road most days, and pick up litter while I am at it. Today I picked up aluminum cans and a battered master look. All will go to my friend who scraps as his side gig.
3. Attended free yoga class at my library.
4. Two of my items on Thredup sold for a total of $149 plus! A leather jacket I was gifted and also a pair of boots that were a gift. The jacket was really nice but too fitted for me and the heel height on the boots hurt my knees, so good-bye.
5. Creating a new flower bed, and using plants I already had elsewhere on the property. Plus my mom gave me a bag of allium bulbs.
Free haircut, free sunglasses. Style for free. It’s all good.
All. Good.
1. Sold two things (from a free pile) today on Marketplace. An electric kettle for the car ($10) and a Hydra Flask lunchbox ($10).
2. Walked a few items to our little free pantry. Passed 3 little free libraries on the way. Picked two free books
3. On the way back from the LFP I found two chairs to go with my “new” free dining table. They were very heavy and sturdy and I was tired by the time I got home.
4. I’m babysitting my great nephew. He is 19 months old. We are having so much fun! I stayed over night as his mom was leaving very early this morning. Free fun!
5. Yesterday I took daughter to her monthly Nerf club gathering. It is free and very well run. Three hours of outdoor games. It was a beautiful day to be outside. My one nephew stopped by unexpectedly and we had a great visit while DD ran around with the Nerf crew.
Free haircuts? I cut my husband’s hair and trim his beard about every 5-6 weeks. I do it when I think he needs one. I have him trim my long hair about every three months or so. Last time it was over four months. It is so convenient to not have to make an appointment or even leave the house. Price is right and never a bad haircut. It seems that the only time I see someone with a bad haircut is when they got their haircut at a salon. Why waste your money?