The Non-Consumer Advocate

1. My hairbrush performed an act of mitosis and split into two pieces.* Kind of a bummer, but I’m always happy to work on a repair project, especially when it’s easy and requires nothing more than a tube of glue. I’d explain how I executed this grueling and formidable task, but I think you can probably figure it out.
   Ta da!

   

   

2. I walked into Fred Meyer while on my way to the library and scored a bag of eleven perfectly good tomatoes for just $1.50. Produce clearance shelf has been on fire lately!

   

3. My neighbor is about to move and keeps putting random items out on her parking strip. The other day it was flowerpots and today it was food from her pantry. I grabbed two cans of soup, (split pea and bean with bacon) and left the rest for others. I never buy canned soup, but it’ll be nice to have some backups for my own pantry.

   

4. I have a houseguest at the moment, who came to Portland by way of Seattle. My hostess gift? A lovely box of candy, plus all the teabags from their Seattle hotel room! He knows that I’m about as cheap as can be and would appreciate the gesture. Guess what? He was right!

   

5. I also bought a couple of these Pokémon mini Hershey bars as they were on clearance for 50¢ apiece. However, I looked them up on eBay when I got home and saw that they’re selling for good money and that I maybe need to get my tuchus back to Fred Meyer to catch them all! You know it’s my destiny.

   Remember when I sold all those 10¢ bags of Bailey’s chocolate chips on eBay during the pandemic?

* I’m aware that mitosis would be my hairbrush splitting into two identical parts, but for this blog post let’s pretend otherwise.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

{ 38 comments }

1. My husband and I recently bought a new-to-us car, which means that our 2005 minivan sits idle more than normal. Specifically throughout a four day heatwave that apparently conjured the ghosts of all stinks past. This prompted me to take an hour or so to wipe out and sweep all inside surfaces and finish it up with a mesh bag of coffee beans over a vent. I’m not sure if this’ll eradicated the stench, but the car is certainly cleaner and who doesn’t love the smell of coffee?

2. You may notice that I attached the coffee bag using one of the Command Strips that I thrifted last month. (Sixteen for $3.99.) I finally found a use for one of them!

   

3. Of course the “Check Engine Light” reared her ugly head in my clean car, so I stopped at O’Reilly’s Auto Parts to have them plug in their free sensor. While there I noticed that they have a free loaner tool program, which is good to know for the future. What was wrong with my twenty-year-old car? This and that, but nothing dire and still quite drivable.

4. I donated a small bag of random items to Goodwill and got a form for my taxes, making sure to fill it in as soon as I got home. There’s a 0% chance that I’ll remember this information when I sit down to do my taxes next year, so this is a favor to future Katy.

   

5. My sister and her family are in the middle of a long awaited trip to the United Kingdom, which I’m so happy about. (Our family lived in London for a number of years throughout our childhood.) I’m also happy to enjoy her cranberry orange marmalade on a freshly baked scone.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

{ 61 comments }

1. I darned a sock for my step father. I think of sock darning as a winter activity, as I rarely wear socks in the summer. Plus, you know . . . it’s a wooly warm activity. I love darning socks, as it’s so satisfying to keep something in circulation that most people would thoughtlessly throw away.

2. My niece was able to get a chic $95 NYC haircut for just $10 by agreeing to be a model for the salon’s social media. She was excited to tell me, as she knows that “Aunt Katy” loves creative frugality!

3. I stopped by my mother’s house and she gave me the latest copy of Architectural Digest that arrived in her mailbox. Neither she nor her husband know why they have a subscription, although they’re sure they don’t pay for it. Either way, they gave it to me to flip through and then put in our little free library. I used to love magazines and always had multiple subscriptions, but rarely read them these days. I know I can access magazines through the Libby app, but there’s just something about physically leafing through a paper magazine. Thanks, mom!

4. My husband volunteers his time teaching CPR to community members, sometimes even having people to the house who are up against a deadline to recertify. Today was one of those days, and because my husband does these classes for free, people often go out of their way to thank him. This is how we’ll be receiving some free Winterhawk hockey tickets!

5. I made fajitas for dinner using Fred Meyer’s clearance shelf peppers from last month, an aging onion and a brick of tofu. I marinated the tofu in chipotle peppers in adobo sauce, lime juice, canola oil and spices, (onion powder, garlic powder, cumin, paprika and salt.) I then cooked the tofu chunks in the air fryer.

   They were so delicious, like good enough to serve to guests delicious!

   The best part is that this was what I call a “dirt and buttons” meal, (don’t ask, I don’t remember why) made using the random ingredients from my echo chamber fridge. Cheap and yummy!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

{ 48 comments }

1. I picked up my hold copy of Poorcraft: Wish You Were Here — The Tightwad’s Guide to Travel from the library. I don’t remember how this graphic novel by Ryan Estrada came across my radar, but I’m glad that it did as I’m always happy to find fun frugal inspiration!

2. I printed out my $30 Kroger gift card, which was a thank you from the American red Cross for donating platelets. I’ll also get a $15 gift card, which should come in the next few days.

   But let’s face it, donating blood is really about the Nutter Butters!

3. My husband and I enjoyed leftovers for dinner, for both the meal and the dessert. My plan is to clean out the fridge tomorrow in anticipation of a big Winco grocery shop. You know how it can be that a refrigerator is full, but there’s somehow nothing to eat? That’s where we are.

4. I ran a series of errands today, making sure to drive an efficient route, to save both time and gasoline. My husband and I later ran a single errand across town. Neither of the trips prompted any impulsive snacky side quests. To quote every single cliché parent:

   “We have food at home!”*

5. I made an online appointment at CVS for a Covid-19 booster and was able to be seen almost immediately. There was no co-payment and I can move forward knowing that I’m protected against the worst of this ongoing pandemic.

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.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.

*Kind of.

{ 38 comments }

1. My husband and I drove our chandeliers to the Habitat Restore and took a stroll through the store. I paid $10.45 for the above vintage lighting globe, which I promptly took to locally owned Lounge Lizard and sold for $40.

   Habitat gets to sell a donated item, I resell it to earn a few dollars and then Lounge Lizard gets to sell it at its full retail value. We all get a piece of the pie.

   

2. The Habitat ReStore had a table of “FREE STUFF!” next to the entrance. I brought home four of these tiny glass vases, as they’re the perfect configuration for propagating avocado pits. I have one exactly like this, which is how I have my own thriving avocado plant.

   

3. Our neighbors invited us over for dinner to thank us for caring for their house and garden whenever they leave town. I brought a homemade blackberry and fig crumble, along with a pint of Häagen Dazs vanilla ice cream, which was free with a Fred Meyer coupon. Especially frugal as the berries and figs were free and the oatmeal was from Winco’s bulk bins.

   

4. I found a quarter on the ground next to the Safeway self checkout. I’ll add it to my 2025 Found Change Challenge jar, which is looking rather anemic as so few people pay with cash these days.

5. My husband needed new summer shorts and didn’t like what they had at the Columbia Sportwear outlet store, so he found a brand (Kühl) and style he liked and ordered three pairs off of eBay. They’re all perfect and he’s very satisfied with paying $25-$27 per pair instead of the $80 they’d cost had he ordered directly from the company. I’m happy that his purchases didn’t prompt the manufacture of brand new items.

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.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.

{ 50 comments }

1. Portland hit the high nineties today, so I kept it simple and mostly hung out at home. Our bedroom gets beastly hot, so we’ll run the bedroom air conditioner tonight, but otherwise I’m surviving with strategically placed fans. I’m also running the furnace’s “summer fan” day and night, which brings cool air up from the basement.

   My 111-year-old house doesn’t have air conditioning, which is pretty standard for Portland, Oregon, as these kinds of temps used to be a rarity.

2. My husband and I took a nice long walk through the neighborhood last night, which was extra enjoyable due to the full moon. His work schedule normally gets him home around 10:45 P.M., but he’s taken a couple weeks off for his annual vacation. It’s fun to have a buddy to hang out with during the evening hours.

3. I started reading a library copy of Motherland: A Memoir of Love, Loathing and Longing, by Elissa Altman. A friend raved about it, so I thought I’d give it a try. I love that libraries allow us to try out a book without the burden of spending money.

   

4. My husband and I are really happy with our curb picked dining room chandelier, so we’re going to donate the old ones to the Habitat ReStore. We already removed the matching living room one a couple years back, as I’d received a ceiling fan from someone in our Buy Nothing group.

   I don’t like to hold onto things “just in case,” as I prefer to keep an uncluttered home. Sending the old light fixtures to the ReStore means they can be put back into circulation, while supporting a terrific nonprofit.

   Here’s the old one:

   

5. My husband mailed out two leftover Pride parade T-shirts to people who weren’t able to attend. (He organizes his company’s Pride festivities!) I showed him the trick to turning an Amazon bubble mailer inside out for a blank surface. These already reused mailers came from my sister, who’d utilized them to cushion her homemade marmalade. So this was their third use!

   He also used Pirateship.com for discounted postage.

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.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.

{ 53 comments }

1. My husband and I decided to stay in town for our 32nd anniversary, as neither of us felt like putting the effort into organizing an out of town trip. Instead we spent the day enjoying our own amazing city.

   • First up was dim sum at Excellent Cuisine, which only gets better with each visit.
   • We then came home to work on projects for a bit. I added my fake plants into our built-in window box and my husband answered emails.
   • I then took an hour or so to pick blackberries across town, which I promptly washed and added to the freezer.
   • We ate delicious leftover eggplant/pepper pasta for dinner, which was fine as we’d enjoyed an indulgent lunch.
   • We then drove over to Powell Butte park for an after-dinner constitutional, which was a perfect end to the day. Nice long walk with beautiful views of Mt St. Helens and Mt Hood. Free parking and only twenty minutes or so from the house.
   • Lastly we stopped at New Seasons Market and picked up a half-price pint of ice cream for only (ha!) $3.99.

   

2. I sold a piece off a free curbside chair on eBay for $35! This made me really happy, as this chair would normally be considered garbage. Might as well scavenge it for parts!

   

   Tee hee hee!

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.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.

{ 71 comments }

1. I got together with a few of my old work friends, which was fun. They wanted to go out for lunch and thrifting, so I suggested IKEA for lunch, as their entrees are half-off on Thursdays! We then drove over to the Goodwill Outlet, aka “the bins” as it’s maybe five minutes away.

   It was really enjoyable to see my friends outside of the hospital where I worked for 24 years.

   

2. I didn’t buy anything to resell at the bins, but I did choose a heavily stickered HydroFlask water bottle, four organizing bins and ten or so fake plants to add to my built-in second story window box that scorches actual plants. I spent $7.76.

   • I easily removed nine vinyl stickers from the Hydro Flask by using a hair dryer to soften the adhesive.
   • I hung the dusty fake plants on my laundry line and spritzed them with the hose.
   • I ran the plastic organizing bins through the dishwasher.

   

3. My lunch was the IKEA salmon plate, which cost just $5.49. (No tip!) I also enjoyed a free coffee and downloaded the IKEA app for a free Frakta bag. The salmon plate was actually pretty bland, I kind of wish that I’d just chosen their $1.15 veggie dog, which is weirdly delicious.

4. I called my friend Lise to ask if she wanted to go for an evening stroll. She didn’t have time for a proper long walk, but she suggested walking to New Seasons Market to drop off our plastics recycling. Honey, that is my kind of friend date! I ran this specific errand recently, so I only had a couple plastics items to recycle, but it was still fun to hang out for a half hour or so.

5. I got caught up on episodes of HBO’s Back to The Frontier, which is okay-ish enough to be worth watching. I wish they’d focus less on the interpersonal conflict between the families and more on how the three families are recreating daily life on an 1880s homestead. Again, thank you to my step-father for letting me mooch off his HBO account.

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.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.

{ 46 comments }