The Non-Consumer Advocate

1. My husband had a potluck after his baseball game, so I made a huge pot of baked beans using black eyed peas for him to take. The recipe used up two partial bottles of ketchup, the last of some barbecue sauce and half an onion that’s been in the fridge for at least a week. I cooked it overnight in my ancient crock pot and wrapped it in a towel to keep it warm while everyone played baseball. I wasn’t able to attend, but only a small amount returned back home, which is a good sign that it was a success.

   I estimate that the ingredients of the huge pot cost around $6, which was mostly the bacon. The black eyed peas were free from my friend Lise!

2. I transplanted my avocado plant into a larger pot as it’s been growing rapidly. I started this plant from a grocery store avocado pit and it’s been fun (and surprising) to watch it thrive in my Portland, Oregon home. It’ll never be able to be planted outdoors,  but it’ll still interesting to see how far I can take it. Needless to say, the “new” pot is a thrifted one I’ve had for years.

3. My daughter is under the weather and currently spending a few days at home so we can properly take care of her. I’d heard that my nephew recently splurged on a Disney+ subscription, so I asked if he’d share his login information with us. (We share all our streaming logins with him.) He did so with the caveat that we had to watch the Star Wars show “Andor.” We’ve since binged through the first twelve episodes and are now making our way through season two.

4. I have a date to grocery shop with a friend today, which’ll be nice as we can catch up while knocking something dull from our to-do lists. I love running errands with friends and family! Certainly cheaper than meeting up in a restaurant, as I have to buy groceries either way.

5. I now have half a Bonne Maman jar of bacon fat that we can slowly use for sautéing onions, scrambled eggs or whatever. I always have a stash of these garbage picked jars, thanks to a specific neighbor and her excellent taste in jam.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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1. I stopped by Safeway for a couple of items this afternoon, specifically cheese. However, $11.99 is an uh oh price, so their “Member Price!” was hardly a bargain. However . . . I’m a true Oregonian and Tillamook brand cheddar cheese is a must. I reluctantly put it in my cart, but then noticed that eight ounce packages were priced at $1.99 apiece. The limit was four, so that’s what I bought. Last time I checked, $7.96 is better than $11.99 for the same 32-ounces of cheese. $4.03 better!

   

2. My husband and I drove across town to run a few errands yesterday and made sure to stop at a Starbucks for his free birthday drink. We chose their biggest size so we could split it.

3. I finally found the missing charging cord for the rechargeable Black & Decker vacuum cleaner that my youngest used in their college apartment. It’ll now go to my daughter, whose ex-roommate stole hers. This was a thrifted vacuum and although I don’t remember exactly how much I paid for it, I do remember that I bought it from the Albany, Oregon Goodwill, which is one of my favorites. So probably a real bargain.

   

4. I went to the last half hour of the neighborhood cleanup event where everything was free and brought home 33 fuchsia starts! I’d deliberately kept my backyard whiskey barrel unplanted as the area is shady and I figured that something would present itself.

   
   The best part is that the barrel was free from Buy Nothing, the potting soil was free from Fred Meyer and now I’ll have a beautiful pot of free fuchsia!

   

5. I also brought home a huge Ball jar for food storage, a variety of organic Burpee vegetable seeds, an organizer bin with four pennies in it and some jar labels — all for free! We also donated a men’s bicycle and a computer travel bag.

   

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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The loss of my Hydro Flask insulated water bottle was an inconvenient annoyance, (you can read about it HERE) but my experience has been that Goodwills are consistently crowded with used replacement options. This is the selection from the one Seattle Goodwill that my husband and I walked past yesterday.

Plastic, metal, ceramic, glass — every option was available! The central premise of reusable water bottles is so people can own just one or two without the need for excessive belongings. Yet they’re overmanufactured like any other consumer product.

Luckily, this brand new looking Hydro Flask bottle was available for the low price of $5.99 plus tax!

Here’s how much it’s listed for on the official Hydro Flask website:

I’ll give it a thorough sanitizing clean once I’m back home, but until then I deem this a win!

One last thought  — The Mariner’s baseball team promotes its environmentally sustainable practices, yet only allows single use plastic water bottles within their stadium. Smells like “greenwashing!”

Katy Wolk-Stanley

“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”

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1. 1. My husband and I stopped at a random Dollar Tree on our way to Seattle to pick up some $1.25 snacks. I was going for a “baseball” theme as we had tickets for the Yankees vs. Mariner’s game that night. I also grabbed a backup pair of reading glasses and a sleeve of crackers to bring back home.

      

   2. I mixed the “salt and vinegar” peanuts in a bag with the pretzels and Baby Ruth bars for our game day snacks. Really good as it created “salt and vinegar” pretzels!

      

   3. The people in front of us left halfway through the game, and I realized afterwards that their sealed fruit and cheese snack plate had fallen out of their bag. I contorted myself down and grabbed it for myself.

      Home run for Katy!

      

   4. I didn’t realize that metal water bottles are banned in the baseball stadium, so I had to give up my nice Hydro Flask bottle, even though it was empty. We were a full mile from the car, so there was no way we could just walk it back. I hid it behind a planter across the street, but it was long gone by the time the game was over. I can likely thrift another one, but it’s still a bummer.

      Cue sad music. Maybe Julio Iglesia’s “To All The Girls I’ve Loved Before.”

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.
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1. I want to watch the second season of Apple TV’s Severance, but feel the need to rewatch season one to refresh my memory. My goal is to binge season two within the borders of a 7-day free trial, which would be a stretch were I to watch both seasons. Instead I put the first season on hold through my library and now have a full three weeks to catch myself up before starting a subscription.

2. I hosted my kids, mother and step-father for Mother’s Day and served a fairly simple meal of salmon, homemade bread, rice, broccoli and ice cream for dessert. It wasn’t a crazy cheap meal, but it was certainly less expensive than any restaurant meal would’ve been. My husband had to work, but I made sure to save leftovers for him.

3. I printed a 8″ X 8″ photo collage for my mother using a 50%-off Walgreen’s digital coupon. It’s perfect for her fridge and features her with each of her four grandkids, plus my sister and I. The total cost was $2.24.

4. My husband and I are planning a three day trip to Seattle to celebrate his birthday and I’m researching fun things to do that won’t break the bank. Our hotel and Mariner’s baseball tickets are a splurge, so I hoping to balance it out with some cheap food and activities. My sister’s family lived in Seattle for a few years while her now ex-husband was in grad school, so I’m pretty familiar with the city, but I want to find a discover a new thing or two.

   I’ll accept any and all suggestions!

5. I’m not decimating the nation’s safety net to enrich my morally bankrupt friends and family.

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.
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1. I took my kitchen knife to a free Repair PDX event and got it professionally sharpened by a volunteer, which felt like magic. (Normally costs around $10 per knife.) They also had volunteers fixing small appliances, bicycles and even mending clothing. The event was like a big jolly party and I’ll definitely be returning.

   I’ve been aware of Repair PDX for awhile, but this was my first time to attend one of their events. I love how there are always new frugal hacks to slip into my bag of tricks!

   Click HERE to see all their events and resources.

   

2. My daughter’s old roommate abandoned a bag of dry cat food, which I brought home and mixed into our regular cat food. I did feed a small amount to 16-year-old Zelda to make sure she liked the brand, but she gobbled it up, so I called it good.

3. I walked my plastics recycling to New Season’s Market instead of paying $14+ per month to Ridwell for bespoke recycling. It may be convenient to have porch pickup, but Ikea takes lightbulbs, city curbside now takes batteries and there’s an annual neighborhood event that’ll take styrofoam.

4. My daughter’s old roommate stole her vacuum cleaner when she moved out, which is a annoyance. However, I have a thrifted Black and Decker rechargeable vacuum that’s just missing the charging cord. (Leftover from when my youngest was in college.) I looked on Amazon to investigate buying a new cord, but instead put in a request in my Buy Nothing group to see if anyone has one laying around. One group member thought he did and is going to get back to me. Crossing fingers!

5. I didn’t accept a $400 million jet from Qatar to use as my own personal Air Force One.

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.
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