One Frugal Thing — Painting a Toilet Seat
by Katy on May 24, 2025 · 40 comments
Our 111-year-old house has one small bathroom, despite it having four full bedrooms. This fact means that our single toilet holds great importance, which is why the mystery scratch in the white finish really bothered me. Like super duper bothered me! Looked like poop from afar.
My husband invested in a schmancy “soft close” seat for some unfathomable reason, which made it a pricier purchase. Although he probably paid less than this example.
I decided enough was enough and unearthed a can of spray paint from the basement and got to work. I taped a plastic bag around the lid and spent the day coating the seat with three light coats of paint. By the way, these are weeds along the side of my house.
No reason to send a bulky item to the landfill when it can be refurbished and brought back to like new condition.
Better!
I’m glad no one was home yesterday to bear witness to me hovering over this seat-less toilet like I was in a 1970s gas station bathroom! Sacrifices were made.
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
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{ 40 comments… read them below or add one }
1. Someone brought my partner 2 donuts at his work. Partner doesn’t really like donuts so he brought them home for me and I ate one for breakfast with my (made at home, from the clearance section) coffee.
2. I picked up 2 mystery shops along my 3.5 hour commute yesterday. One was at a grocery store, where I stretched the impact buying items that were on sale (so an extra $6.92 worth of food!), although I screwed up and bought 2 ears of corn, but missed the threshold of $10 to get the super-sale price, by 0.33. I hope these two ears of corn are the best I’ve ever had, at $0.60 instead of the $0.10 I thought that I was going to pay for them.) The second shop was at a restaurant, so I had dinner and pocketed the payout of $18.
3. I found heavy cream on FlashFood. I rarely need it, but when I do, I get sticker shock, so I’ll divide into 2 1-cup jars and freeze.
4. I rented out my work apartment to a friend, so I’ll add an additional $60 to my travel fund.
5. I just found out that I was granted a sabbatical for the fall semester, so I’ll save 4 months of commuting (7 hours weekly + tolls), which I estimate will be about $900 + a reduction in taxes, since I won’t be working in NY.
Congrats on sabbatical! Will you sublet your NY apartment?
@Kathy,
Sadly not. I have a fantastic deal for the Hudson Valley, and my landlord has only raised my rent by $50 in 15 years. I do not want to jeopardize this, as I pay far, far (far) below current market rates. I do have a friend who lives in Syracuse and she and her husband love the HV, and so she pays me $30 per night and uses the pied-à-terre occasionally.
Hey, Betta, I send greetings to your friend. I too live in the city best known for its minor-league basketball team with the citrus-themed party-school university attached.
I just love reading your mystery shops. We don’t have too many restaurant shops in Fairbanks because there are fewer franchises (still too many for my taste because I remember the days when we had to drive 358 miles one way to go to Wendy’s in Anchorage. We also had only a one screen movie theater so about once a summer we would take a weekend to drive down there, eat at Wendy’s and McDonalds, and go to as many movies as we could fit in.)
Is that a bidet attachment? Do you have stats on how much that’s saving you?
Good job on the toilet seat!
My latest frugal fail is that I couldn’t find an item I’d hoped to buy used, so I ordered a new one. I got it yesterday, and it was defective, so I returned it. One benefit of buying used is that the truly crappy items will break before they reach the used market.
Katy, you have pretty weeds. Nice save on the toilet seat. Like you, I’d try to fix what looks like dried poop.
Frugal fail: went to hardware store to look for adjustable louvered window screens (the ones that let air in and keep rain out. $30 for 2. However, it means we can enjoy natural air conditioning/fresh air and not run the air conditioner that sucks electricity. Possibly a trade off?
Stopped by a local coffee shop. We went to a free community thanksgiving dinner in November and were each given a coupon for a free 12 oz. coffee. Finally got to use the coupons!
Stopped at the grocery store to get some cheese. Found a lot of 8 oz bottles of French’s mustard regularly $1.79 marked down to $.80. Bought 3. We use mustard, but not a lot. This should be enough for the rest of 2025, maybe into 2026.
Whole seedless watermelon regularly $7.99. On sale for $6.99. Had e-coupon for $3 off. Final price $3.99. Local farmers market wants $10 for a watermelon. Hope my $3.99 watermelon is good.
1.I sanded and painted all of my floor vent covers, I had the paint and sanding supplies so no $$ spent and they look good! I have no idea why but when my semi-feral long haired rescue cat decides she needs to barf a hairball, she will invariably do it on at floor vent. Its disgusting but I love her anyway.
2. Discovered we finally got a flash foods and was able to get several types of meat for the freezer. I think I am going to like Flash Foods!
3. picking spinach and lettuce from my garden.
4. doing all of my yard and garden work and keeping up on weeds. Most everything is growing well. I cannot seem to get the colorful carrots or parsnips to germinate and grow but have decided that when I am home from my mini-vaca if they aren’t doing anything I will plant another few rows of green beans.
5. making my own yogurt and bread as always.
* haven’t sold out my country or my soul for filthy lucre.
I am having zero luck getting spinach or lettuce to germinate. My radishes are not doing very well either. Beans are popping and so is corn. It may just be all about the beans this year. We love, lettuce and salad salads, so why can’t I grow them? It has not even been higher than 80 yet. Disgusted!
Have you looked on your county’s Master Gardener website for when to plant things? Lettuce is a cool weather crop, which is really too bad because summer is when we’d like salads. It is too late the plant lettuce where I live and if you have beans coming up then it may be too late where you live. Sometimes people can grow lettuce in a shady spot through later spring. Other reason seeds done germinate: soil was not kept moist, seeds were too old, birds ate seeds. Lettuce seeds need light to germinate, unlike most other seeds.
Happy gardening!
@Julia, kettuce is one of those weird seeds that needs LIGHT to germinate. Try sprinkling on the top of the soil and not covering at all, just press in and water very very gently.
also, last year I wondered about my germination of things, until I discovered the snails and slugs were doing a number on them as soon as they showed a teeny bit of green…
Katy, I have said how my refugee parents were poverty stricken. Years later my father invented something and became wealthy (not in comparison to the oligarchs taking over the U.S. but more money than he had dreamt of those years in various German camps). He built his dream house and his dream bathroom: separate shower and giant tub, double counters, huge mirrors, and the pride of his life—a giant screen TV and a recliner. The bathroom was larger than any bedroom I have ever had. His toilet was set up higher so that in his old age he did not struggle to get off. Personally, I would not have wanted to watch TV or snooze in the bathroom, but when he got the cancer that killed him, that bathroom became his bedroom when he could no longer sleep lying flat, and it was conveniently located near a toilet so when he was nauseated he did not have to trot far to throw up. I am glad he got to build the Taj Mahal of toilets after all that suffering as a young kid and man, but it still made me cringe. At least he didn’t gold plate everything, like some people we know.
Lindsey, as always, I greatly enjoy reading your stories of your father. I haven’t yet given up hope that you might write a biography of him.
@Lindsey – while quite the dream bathroom, it was not all that impractical. Did he have a premonition of his future – I’m thinking perhaps an inkling. However I can think of worse things on which to spend money (fireworks at graduation comes mind).
I have a memory of a bathroom that made my jaw drop as a kid in the 70s. Luxurious! It was in one of my mother’s magazines. Sunken tub, carpeting, lots of plants and a CHAIR. Not a lounge chair, just a regular chair. I wish I knew what magazine that came from so I could buy a copy and laugh at the 70sness of it all.
I once interviewed a real estate mogul out here who said when he was growing up, the idea of a fireplace and an indoor jacuzzi seemed like the ultimate in luxury, so that’s what he built in his dream house. Gotta say I loved it too. (Pictured here: https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-the-1-million-a-month-hamptons-sandcastle-2016-5#-and-a-spa-with-fireplace-in-floor-jacuzzi-hydraulic-massage-tables-sauna-steam-room-and-showers-8)
As for me, I am not a big TV person but having once rented a hotel room in Las Vegas with an enormous spa tub and a bathroom TV, it was pretty great.
This is the kind of cheap AF tip up with which I shall put! With delight!
I also have spray painted toilet seats, starting back 20 years ago when someone spilled acetone on one and left it with big brown spots where the finish came off.
Today I made molasses bran muffins with raisins to use up some long-opened ingredients (vegetable oil, the bran, raisins), made up four cartons of mashed potatoes to freeze, and chopped up onions and carrots to freeze.
Sewed up new hems on some thrift shop jeans that were too long. Rack dried a mop head and a heavy beach towel. Hand washed a sinkful of dishes so that my menfolk would not try to use the dishwasher for a small load.
I love your bathroom floor tile!
Today I:
– Shopped at Goodwill
– found 4 pennies
– sold an item on ebay
Great job keeping an item out of the landfill and saving money. It’s a double victory.
Your many hacks are inspiring.
“Double victory,” I like that!
Great job on that toilet seat. I enjoy the photos you share of your home – love the bathroom tile. I we ever remodel a bathroom (I doubt this will ever happen) we will go for black and white tile.
Thank you. We put to tile in when we did a light remodel in 2005 or so.
I would have never thought to spray paint a toilet seat. Brilliant!
–Frugal fail: forgot to go pick up the free flag at Ace Hardware. Would’ve held the flag upside down during the next protest against the Orange Ogre. It’s scheduled on the day he wastes millions of dollars on a parade for himself.
–Did laundry and, as usual, only used dryer 10 minutes to de-wrinkle, then hung everything up to dry. Moved the dryer racks to the garage, taking advantage of the hot air Mother Nature provides. (It was 92 degrees F in the afternoon.)
–Went to Target to return the Visa gift card that did not work. They refused to take it back. Now what?
–Mostly stayed home until time to go to the store and start my shift. Agreed to take a teenaged worker’s 4-hour shift on Monday; being alone, I rarely get to celebrate holidays, so might as well make some $. Working at the store keeps me from being alone and after several years there, I like to greet the “regulars” who come in a lot. If things are slow, we get to visit for a minute. But even just saying hello and thank you (gotta be quick when others are in line) brightens my day.
Look on the back of the card for a customer service telephone number. I had to do that when an Am Ex gift card would not unlock for use. It took talking to a customer service person to get the hold automatically applied when the cards are purchased lifted.
You think you’re beyond shocked at the insane timeline we’re living in and there will be something new to top the last insane thing.
Did you register the card? I’ve had Visa gift cards before and if you want to use them online, you need to register them first. Don’t know why, but after that, no issues…
I never thought about painting a toilet seat either but now I will be painting ours! It has two chips on it and looks gross. So I’ll try the painting touch up before buying a new one.
Nice work on the toilet seat!
1) We hosted a “car wash” party for DS18’s friends, and got out all of the supplies & let them wash their cars at the house. I picked up ice cream bars & popsicles, using a grocery store gift card. It was a lot cheaper than everyone using the car wash. DH loves washing cars, and enjoyed teaching them proper technique, and how to clean the wheels with his special brush.
2) I really wanted Persian takeout, after all of the discussion of favorite Persian foods. Two of DS18’s friends are Persian, as is DH, so there was lots of discussion about favorite meals. We considered it, but I opted to make orange chicken (from Costco) that we had tucked away in the freezer. Much cheaper, although definitely not the same. I served it with cauliflower rice (also from the freezer).
3) Spent about 1/2 of yesterday working on a presentation for a job interview. Please see also my thoughts that, after doing 9 interviews, investing 50+ hours, and having been in discussions for this job since January…my level of enthusiasm for said new ask to create a presentation for a Q&A panel for the job next week is not particularly high. It really shouldn’t be this hard.
4) Paid for COBRA, which was absolutely, 100% not frugal. But, having health insurance is critical, and we will use our HSA funds to reimburse what we paid out of pocket. So, grateful we had the funds to do that.
5) Both DS18 & DS19 got paid, so we are encouraging the teens to make smart choices with saving vs spending, and reminding them how to set up a budget.
Your job interview requirements are criminal. How many dollars is the company paying all the current employees who are doing the interviewing? I often want to remind companies that long hiring processes cost not only the potential hires, but the time and energy of their existing employees. Pick someone from the first interview, try then out for 2 weeks, and you will know much more than any interview could tell you. And spend far less.
1. Went to a low key picnic yesterday. We all brought something so it was a lovely low cost feast.
2. I’d been looking for one of these mini waffle makers with a rabbit imprint for a bout a year. Used of course. I finally found one two weeks ago at a thrift store. Made bunny waffles for breakfast today. Made my heart happy.
3. Spending today at home doing yard work and taking a walk with friends. Food will be pulled pork BBQ from the freezer and a few sides. Easy peasy and in expensive.
4. Dog sitting starting today at our house with a dig we love. Fun first us, friend pays our daughter well but saves money on kennel prices and doggo gets to play with our pups and sleep in our bed. Win win all around!
5. Hanging laundry outside as it FINALLY seems to have stopped raining.
1. Yesterday I attended three volleyball tournament games in which my grandson was playing. Free entertainment, and as the games were exciting, it was very entertaining.
2. Afterwards I took grandson out for a late lunch. We went to Noodles and Company, at his request, and I didn’t get any deals. I ordered two sides rather than an entree. And I got water. He ordered an entree and a drink, and we both got the overpriced cookies, because we were very hungry. Anyway, the total came to around $35, which took me by surprise, since the last time I went there it was much cheaper. Of course, that was before the pandemic!
3. I took my dirty car to the car wash, which used to be $3, and now is $7. But the vacuum is free, so I like that. I found a dime in the vacuum space.
4. I ordered some string from Amazon, realizing I had nothing to tie up the cheesecloth bags I plan to use for soup. I still have enough credits to make it free
5. I was reading a library book that was so heavy it was very hard to handle. Luckily, an e-book was available to borrow, so I switched over to that. Either way, free entertainment, and I’m glad I had options.
Vive la resistance: I’ve been invited to a Memorial Day gathering with like-minded friends tomorrow evening. I was asked to bring wine, so I’ve bought a bottle of 19 Crimes cab sav and have taped a newspaper photo of You Know Who over the photo of the 19 Crimes guy. And I’ve further embellished the label with a write-in comment: “FAR MORE Than 19 Crimes!!!”
(Hey, we gotta get our jollies somehow. I keep doing what I’ve been doing to protest, but it feels increasingly like spitting into the wind.)
On a cheerier note, the sun has just made an appearance here in the first time for what seems like forever. I’ve just yanked all my seedlings out of my mini greenhouse and am giving them a gentle sunbath for an hour or so (don’t want to burn the poor dears) to start hardening them off. God willin’ and it don’t start raining again, I hope to start serious planting this week.
I love this!!!!
One of my friends, who was politically very sharp, used to do satiric toasts to Felon 45/47 with a bottle of 19 Crimes. I miss her a lot. Damn cancer for taking her far too soon.
A. Marie,
DH, DS, myself, and some friends of ours went to see Brit Floyd in concert last night (Saturday). They’re a Pink Floyd tribute band that we are huge fans of…..anyway, during one of their songs – maybe a song from the album The Wall? – there’s a line along the lines of “should we trust the government?” , and the graphic on the screen said “No!” next to the crossed-out word “government”. There was much cheering from the audience, including from yours truly. The government was much different when that album came out 40-something years ago, but certain songs are still pertinent.
1. Smoothie from homegrown strawberries. Trying to drink up this gallon of milk before it expires.
2. Hanging laundry out to dry.
3. Enjoying blooms cut from my own yard.
4. Cleaned the chicken coop and added it to my compost pile.
5. Having a friend over for a beer at home this evening. We also have some chips and salsa. Happy hour at minimal cost.
Love your homemade “happy hour!”
@Katy – have to ask – do you intend to age in place? Have you given any thought to a main floor bathroom as well as main floor bedroom? A LOT of farm houses in my area “all upstairs”. One can deal with the bedroom with a stair lift but the bathroom “travel time” might not work.
When we bought this house, better half remodeled it for aging in place (he’d *never* agree to a non-main floor bedroom or bathroom). Doorways are wheelchair accessible, main floor laundry room. If need be, stair lift to the basement (I’m younger read: my knees are younger). Second floor would work for live-in help.
I found a roll of stamps in a puddle yesterday. I think most are salvageable!
Hung out laundry.
Used up a package of bacon that was languishing to make baked beans.
Brought leftovers for my shift.
Retrieved summer clothes from storage and stored away winter clothes. Washing and storing heavy work clothes as well.