The Non-Consumer Advocate

I booked a flight to New York this summer and was able to pay just $205 by shuffling frequent flier miles. I had almost 25,000 miles sitting idle in an account but was separate from the miles that my husband and I accrue through an airline credit card — unfortunately the ticket required 70,000 miles. I called customer service and they walked me through how to transfer miles for the least amount of money. My husband tells me that the ticket was going to cost $800, which seems insane but apparently it’s a popular time to travel.

I also made sure to purchase a direct flight ticket that has me landing early enough in the day, so I can take public transportation to my sister’s house during daylight. This saves either the cost of a taxi or the bother of someone driving to get me.

I was able to thrift six drinking glasses to match the three that my son and I bought a couple weeks ago. I deliberately chose a popular design that I knew would be easy to thrift if broken or misplaced. I thought they were Ikea, although I might be wrong. Either way, I was right that three could be thrifted on one day and the rest on another.

He now has five tall glasses and four shorter ones and I paid maybe $12 for all.

My personal Working Glass drinking glasses were also chosen as they’re easily thrifted and can be replaced singularly if broken. People think that buying used means you live with a jumble of hodge-podge belongings, but with a little patience that’s simply not true.

I’m currently enjoying a laughable number of library books, as a bunch of my holds came in at once. One that I’m halfway though and thoroughly enjoying is Nobody Wants Your Sh*t: The Art of Decluttering Before You Die. It’s a tiny book, but doles out the pragmatic advice that you need. Seems like it might be a parody book, but it isn’t.

The perfect book for people who prefer their advice with a tremendous amount of swearing.

• I baked a loaf of no knead artisan bread and continue to use the 99¢/5-lb flour that I scored in November. Total cost of the loaf? Around 15¢ once you account for the yeast, salt, sesame seeds and cornmeal.
• I sprinkled Winco bulk purchased corn meal in the bottom of the pan instead of using the recommended parchment paper. I’ve never bought parchment paper and consider it to be wasteful.
• I was craving a treat last night, so I pulled out my thrifted air popper for a big bowl of popcorn. Melted butter and a generous sprinkling of salt scratched this itch. Unsurprisingly, I scoop my popcorn from the Winco bulk bins.
• I watched the movie Misbehaviour last night through the library’s free Kanopy app. Excellent movie about the 1970 Miss World beauty competition and how it sparked Britain’s women’s liberation movement. Stacked with A-list actors such as Kiera Knightly and Rhys Ifans, I highly recommend.
• I noticed that Safeway had Challenge butter on sale for $3.99/lb without a limit. I picked up four pounds as butter freezes well. I wish that $4/lb wasn’t a stock up price.

I didn’t thrift any Lear Jets.

1. I dedicated Monday to doing a full grocery shop, jotting down a thorough list for days in advance. My day was pretty open, so I detoured to the dented vegetable store and picked up the above random items before hitting up Winco. (It’s hard to tell, but that’s a very full bag of mushrooms.) You never know what they’ll have in stock, but I don’t think I’ve ever walked out empty handed. My total? $7.81.

   Winco was an additional $62.20, but that was for a piled high grocery cart.

2. I took my daughter out for a much needed mother-daughter date, which was belated as I’d promised her a new pair of Doc Martens at Christmas/Chanukah. But first I wanted to treat her to lunch. She was in the mood for Indian food, so she did a bit of internet research which landed us at the Namaste Indian buffet in N.E. Portland. It was almost 3 P.M. by the time we arrived, which turned out to be lucky as their prices jump from $16/plate to $20/plate when the clock ticks over to three.

   We were both really happy with our meals and I don’t know about my daughter, but I was still full at dinner time. If breakfast/lunch is “brunch,” then what is lunch/supper? “Lupper?”

   The Doc Martens weren’t frugal, but I’m happy to spend money on things people want and will use. I’m thinking the cost per wear for my daughter’s boots will eventually break down to pennies.

3. I had my daughter bring by a load of laundry so she could save however much she pays for her apartment complex’s crappy laundry facilities. Bonus: My folding service is free.

4. • My friend and I socialized by chatting over cups of tea at my house. Fills my cup both literally and figuratively.
   • Everything went well with Mama’s Little Meatball spay surgery on Monday.
   • I washed all my bedding and had it all back on the bed by late afternoon. We only have two good sets of sheets, (percale for summer and flannel for winter) so the laundering process needs to be efficient. Saves us money and works well for us.

5. I didn’t thrift any tiny Lear Jets.

The credit union where my husband and I bank doesn’t offer a high yield savings account (HYSA) for current members, so we stash our savings with CIT, an online bank. Their interest rate is currently 5.05%, making it worth the hassle of setting up an extra online account.

But I prefer to keep our accounts simple, which is why a lightbulb went off when I received a notification that our credit union would be merging with another local credit union by the end of the year. I’d seen their billboards around town touting a HYSA for new members, so I got the idea to transfer savings to this credit union. Essentially setting myself up for a grandfathered HYSA with my own credit union.

The process was a bit of a pain in the tuchus, as we had to unfreeze our credit, (an anti-fraud precaution) renew my driver’s license, (oops, it expired at the beginning of January) and pull together all necessary information. Plus, I noticed that there was a $100 bonus for a friend if she referred me, so I needed that code before going forward.

Was it worth it? Yes, because our savings is now in a 5.25% interest HYSA, plus I stuck $5 into their 5% savings account, which is guaranteed at that rate for a full 15 months. (The 5.25% account can fluctuate, so I’ll transfer funds if need be.) My friend gets her $100 and we now have our savings in a local brick and mortar credit union that’s actually walkable from the house.

My son loves to cook, but had been mostly using our house, as his last kitchen was teeny and shared with four other people. Add in that he lived five minutes from our well appointed kitchen, so he did almost all of his meal prep cooking at the house. He now lives waaay across town with a functional kitchen, so I offered to set him up with herbs and spices.

My mother buys the Oui brand yogurts which come in glass jars, so I asked her if she’d part with some. She happily agreed and even threw in eight bamboo lids. (Thanks, mom!) I bought another box of lids from Schmeff Schmezos, which added up to 16 jars. I buy my spices in bulk at Winco, so I had enough of everything to share.

Not only was this a frugal project due to the free jars, but Winco’s prices on bulk herbs and spices are insanely cheap. Think 35¢ to fill a Bonne Maman jam with basil! I hate to see my kids overspend their hard earned money, which made this a deeply satisfying endeavor.

I wrote last week about how I got a great vacuum cleaner through Buy Nothing after getting a less than ideal vacuum from the same group. As in the woman told me that “This vacuum should work fine, I guess you could tape the carpet attachment into place.” I should have declined it in the moment, but politeness took over my critical thinking.

Tag, I was it!

It wasn’t in good enough condition to donate to Goodwill and it was too rainy to set it out with a “free” sign. Anyway, I finally took photos and put it back up on Buy Nothing with a proper and honest description this time. Someone is coming to pick it up tomorrow morning. Fingers crossed!

• I made a huge pot of Mexican-style soup using a picked clean Costco rotisserie chicken and pressure cooked black beans. I added a can of chopped tomatoes, onion, lemon juice, frozen corn and various savory spices. So good, especially with a sprinkle of shredded cheese on top!
• I successfully repaired my Birkenstock clogs using Dollar Tree super glue and an unholy number of clamps.
• I finished listening to Remarkably Bright Creatures on Libby and immediately started listening to The Wishing Game, also on Libby.
• My mother took my daughter and I to lunch, (thanks mom!) and I chose a soup that I know is big enough for leftovers. I then fed to those leftovers to my daughter that evening as she was hanging out at the house to watch a show on Disney Plus.
• We only have Disney Plus, as my son has a friend’s login. Frankly, I never watch it.

I didn’t thrift any Lear Jets.

1. I watched what my sister calls a “short form cinema,” (aka Instagram reel) where someone was making a baked cottage pie and I realized I could scrounge most of the ingredients from what I had on hand. I had maybe a quarter pound of ground turkey in the fridge, but I figured I’d just bulk up the veggies to make up for it.

   I sautéed and simmered mushrooms, carrots, (both diced and grated) frozen peas, onions, cilantro and celery with beef broth, herbs and spices with the last of some marinara sauce and a few squirts of ketchup. (I didn’t have any tomato paste.) The last of a bag of potatoes provided the mash, to which I added sour cream, butter, milk, grated cheddar cheese and a handful of home dried chives.

   The above photo is before I put it in the oven and I cannot oversell how absolutely satisfying this meal was. Comfort food at its best!

2. I printed two eBay labels for free at the library as my printer is currently only spitting out blank pages. I swear that my eBay only makes sales when it senses that my printer is on the fritz!

   What did I sell?

   The copper fish pan that I thrifted on my birthday. $60
   A Pendleton wool blank book that I pulled from a free box maybe three years ago. $18.80

3. My neighbor put another empty Bonne Maman jam jar in her recycling bin, which I brought home and washed for reuse. I recently sent a few to my son’s apartment filled with coffee, tea, dishwasher detergent and butter, so I was actually running low. I love these jars for storage and small amounts of leftovers.

4. • I picked up groceries at Trader Joe’s for a neighbor whose whole family has Covid.
   • My son had me over and made spaghetti carbonara for the two of us.
   • Yesterday was up to 60°F in Portland yesterday, so I cracked open all the windows and turned the heat off. There’s just something about actual fresh air in the house that can’t be replicated.

5. I didn’t thrift any tiny Lear Jets.