The Non-Consumer Advocate

eBay sales have been coming in at a good clip, which is welcome since December is always a huge clusterhump of gifting, winter term tuition and miscellaneous add ons like nursing license renewal, car registration and the inevitable financial nonsense.

Some items were things I’d recently picked up, while others had been languishing in my inventory for ages. It can be frustrating to have shelves of stuff that elicits the, “crap, why did I ever think this would sell?” vibe, but at least half of sales is usually stuff listed at least six months ago.

Each time I list something I’m doing a favor for “Future Katy.” Gotta play the long game.

Here’s some of what sold:

•A pair of motorycle armor pants.
•A Jonathan Adler Christmas ornament.
•A beaded medallion.
•A miscellaneous bag of vintage watches.
•A vintage tile ashtray.
•A Christmas scarf.
•A pair of literary journals.
•More Funko Pop figures.
•A set of four dining room chairs. (These sold locally.)

Hopefully this trend will continue through the month as mama needs a brand new bag more college tuition money.

I dragged my mother to a financial information seminar, as I’d received a flyer in the mail and it included a free dinner. I normally would have chucked it into the recycling bin, but I was curious how my love of free food weighed against the horror of a predatory financial seminar.

Unfortunately, the salesman, (who of course was selling whole life insurance) was a deeply offensive sexist pig. I will not repeat what he said, but it resulted in me loudly stating my opinion and then stomping out of the room.

My mother then drove our proud selves through Burgerville, so I ended up getting a free dinner after all. So . . . a frugal win?

I went with my friend Lise to do some writing at Ikea, as free coffee is our love language. We then hit up the pay-by-the-pound Goodwill Outlet, and although I didn’t buy anything newsworthy, I did pick up a number of items that should sell on eBay. One example? The aforementioned pair of motorcycle armor pants.

I stopped at the library and picked up the first season of Mr. Robot to watch with my daughter, I gave a book of New Seasons Market coupons (they’re like Whole Foods) coupons to my neighbors who shops there, I purchased nothing on Cyber Monday and am not clicking over to Amazon browsing for “deals.”

I made a decision a long time ago to avoid shopping at Amazon.com as I do not respect their CEO or their treatment of lower level employees. I know that Amazon is a life saver for many people with accessibility issues, but that’s not my current situation. They’re the polar opposite of how I want to spend my dollars. Used whenever possible, and local if not.

I didn’t buy a Lear Jet or a vulgar gold-plated apartment in the sky.

I had a busy, busy week as I hosted Thanksgiving for everyone and cooked the entire meal from scratch. (Okay, I just lied. I called my mother on Wednesday and begged asked politely if she could bring rolls.) Add in that we invited a former Japanese exchange student to spend his fall break with us, and I can’t recall a spare minute over the past week.

The exchange student was someone that we’d hosted 4-1/2 years ago, and had already experienced my greatest hits tour of Portland and the surrounding areas, (i.e., cool, but mostly free stuff) so I had to branch out. We ended up planning a freezing cold Oregon coast adventure day, which included my son, the exchange student, my daughter and her girlfriend. I treated everyone to meals and activities, (a Mexican food cart lunch, beach time, a Goodwill shopping spree, the Tillamook Cheese Factory tour, fun at the Seaside arcade and dinner at the iconic Camp 18 restaurant on the way home.) and have to say that it was a day well spent.

Yes, I spent a generous amount of money, but I’m chalking it up to experiences over stuff and support of the Portland-Sapporo Sister City Association and positive international relations.

Scrimping and saving on the unimportant stuff so that the money is available when meaningful spending opportunities arise.

I sold a few things here and there over the past week, most of which were on Black Friday. This included a pair of new-in-package Ikea curtains, a porcelain pie server, an Otter phone case and a pair of distressed drawer pulls.

My favorite thing is that the phone case and drawer pulls were sourced from free boxes, so I was able to put what others may have tossed into the hands of people looking for these specific items. Plus, I made a couple of bucks in the process.

I baked up a neighbor’s leftover uncut Halloween pumpkin for all my Thanksgiving pies. I know that a lot of people think that standard Halloween pumpkins aren’t edible, but they absolutely are!

It’s as simple as:

•Cut the pumpkin into big chunks.
•Scrape out the seeds.
•Place on a baking sheet and bake in a 350° oven until the meat is soft.
•Scoop the meat from the tough skin. (Compost the skin.)
•Puree in a food processor or mixer until smooth.

Each pumpkin will provide enough puree for 4-5 pies, and any excess can be frozen until the thought of pumpkin pie is appealing again.

Better than Libby’s.

I borrowed an out of town neighbor’s silverware to provide for our 12 Thanksgiving guests, I didn’t buy anything on Black Friday, (okay, this is another lie. I picked up bananas and coffee at Trader Joe’s) and I’m having a hard time coming up with any other “frugal things,” as it was an unapologetically pricey week.

I didn’t buy a Lear Jet or a vulgar gold-plated apartment in the sky.

I didn’t sell much this week, although it makes sense as I didn’t do any thrifting. (Which translates to stale “merchandise.”) However, I did sell a Jonathan Adler dachshund figurine, a pair of Nerf bandanas, a vintage horror movie pin, an American Girl doll, some vintage wooden drawer knobs and a small wooden table that I’d painted awhile back.

Supposedly someone is coming by this afternoon for a sewing table and someone tomorrow for some Danskos. However, I know well enough to not count my chickens before they hatch.

I braved Sunday’s grocery mayhem and drove to Winco to buy the supplies for Thursday’s Thanksgiving feast. I was worried that the store would be pure hell, but was pleasantly surprised that it was only the normal amount of weekend busy. I saw that you could get a free turkey with a $100 purchase, so I stocked up on a few non-perishable items such as cat litter and rice. However I was still $7 shy of the $100 mark, so I grabbed two loaves of $5.47 gluten-free bread to reach my goal.

So expensive, yet the purchases allowed me to get a free turkey.

For those of you who have access to a Winco, I strongly encourage you to check them out. Not only are they employee owned, (so not prioritizing shareholders over their own employees!) but their groceries are insanely inexpensive. Add in their huge bulk section and they really are the best.

I asked for working PS3 controllers on my Buy Nothing Group as we were down to a single functional one. A neighbor gifted us two, which is great as my house is about to full of young ‘uns for the Thanksgiving break. (A former Japanese exchange student will be spending the week with us.) It’s especially generous as one of the controllers was still in its original packaging!

Let the games begin!

My daughter’s girlfriend gave me a couple boxes of tulips and daffodils bulbs that her employee was otherwise tossing, (I think I’ll try doing forced bulbs for holiday gifts) I helped myself to an armload of my father’s firewood so we can use the fireplace on Thanksgiving, (thanks, dad!) I got together with a friend and we ended up going for a longish walk to the credit union, my husband took apart and repaired our dining room table, I washed and scrubbed our mildewy shower curtain liner instead of replacing it and I RSVPd “yes” to a free steak dinner, even though I’ll have to sit through a hard sell spiel on predatory retirement products. My son’s next tuition payment in looming and I am in budget-lockdown mode.

I didn’t buy a Lear Jet or a vulgar gold-plated apartment in the sky.

I stopped into a nearby Goodwill store to recharge my batteries and ended up walking out with three items:

• A $3.49 Salvatore Ferragamo silk necktie which I quickly resold for $30.

• A $1.99 painting from the Tanzanian artist Simon George Mpata, whose art is displayed in museums throughout the world. I put it up on eBay for just $200 as there’s no way I can authenticate the piece.

• A $2.99 vintage pixie elf figurine that I’ll likely keep.

The way that I rationalize these purchases, (and not cross the line into becoming a hoarder) is to immediately list any and all items that I buy for resale. My entire eBay inventory slots into a small corner of our spare bedroom and other than the packing tape, (which needs to be new) I exclusively ship with secondhand supplies.

I got an email for a free Redbox DVD yesterday, so I scrolled through a kiosk to see if there were any movies that my family might enjoy. However, I’d just stopped in at the library and checked out a DVD of Bohemian Rhapsody. I realized that I didn’t need to burden myself with a free DVD that charges a $1.99 per-day late fee when I was already in possession of a movie that wouldn’t be late until December 9th.

It can be fun to chase the blink-before-they’re-gone exciting deals, but in the end it’s the dull daily frugal practices that support my family’s debt-free lifestyle.

I met up for a parallel play writing date with my friend Lise. Both of us have kids in college and go to extreme lengths to not waste money. This means that our get togethers tend more towards, “Hey, they have free coffee at Ikea” rather than “Let’s meet at Starbucks.”

I have other friends who would not enjoy the weirdness of repeat Ikea coffee dates, but that just means that we rarely get together.

I accepted the offer of excess produce from a neighbor who was going out of town, I called my car insurance company to update info (which’ll save us $73.18 per year) I mended a pair of my husband’s work pants as well as my travel purse (which turned out to contain a lost pair of sunglasses!) I received some Fred Meyer (Kroger) coupons in the mail and actually remembered to use them, (free eggs and pasta sauce!) and I watched The Spy Who Dumped Me with my daughter through my mother’s Amazon Prime account.

I didn’t buy a Lear Jet or a vulgar gold-plated apartment in the sky.

After selling at a good clip, my sales have petered out a bit. I did sell a new-in-box landline phone, a vintage oil painting and a single hexagonal marble tile that I plucked from my sister’s Bronx, NY beach. Plus I also sold a funny little wooden table that I’d bought at Goodwill.

Nothing too impressive, but still better than having non-monitized hobbies.

My number one goal in life is to delay grocery shopping as long as possible, (seriously, I hate it more than almost anything!) So when I realized that I had two single chicken breasts yet four people to feed for last night’s dinner I got creative. I grabbed a whole cauliflower, (thank you Trader Joe’s for selling produce by the item instead of by the pound!) as well as a couple of zucchini from the fridge.

I then topped the dish with a slurry of soy sauce, garlic, brown sugar, Sriracha sauce and corn starch. Served over rice, this impromptu stir fry allowed me to procrastinate the inevitable grocery shopping trip for some other day. Instead we stayed on budget. Another day, another home cooked meal.

My husband and I spent a rare free afternoon indulging in some shopping and dining. You don’t have to ask “where?” as you already know that we went to Goodwill. But not just any Goodwill, as we went to the West Burnside location that is conveniently located next door to Elephant’s Deli.

My dreamiest and most romantic date involves perusing the aisles for thrifty treasures plus melted cheese. We shared a fondue platter which Elephant’s sells during their happy hour (after 3 P.M.) for just $5. It’s enough food for two people and insanely delicious! A five dollar date for two? I call that a frugal win!

I was able to get 24 free temporary checks from my credit union, (which should last at least six months) I found two quarters, one dime and two pennies while on my date, my parents no longer use their Soda Stream, so they gifted me an extra CO2 canister, I gave away an unwanted wall calendar through my Buy Nothing Group, and I completed a furniture refinishing project that I’d started in 2017!

I didn’t buy a Lear Jet or a vulgar gold-plated apartment in the sky.

I sold a few things, (through both Facebook Marketplace and eBay) including a plant stand, a vintage wire shelf and a small end table; as well as a Pyrex lid, a mug, a down vest, a pair of Dansko clogs and a couple more Funko Pop figures. No hugely impressive sales, but they added up quite nicely.

I spent six hours cleaning the front porch and kitchen of my mom’s rental cottage. I need to go back and finish up the house which should take just a couple more hours, although it could be more as the last tenants were seriously messy. Seriously . . . they were there for two months and I wouldn’t be surprised to learn that they never once vacuumed.

I saw through their Facebook page that the Supercuts training center was doing free haircuts, so I made an appointment and drove over for one of their highly supervised services. This took no more time than a traditional cut would have taken, and I’ve been 100% satisfied with the six or so cuts I’ve received since I figured out this frugal hack. These capable stylists are board certified, (not students) simply new employees.

My friend Joel from How To Money gets his hair cut from a Supercuts training center in Atlanta, so it’s worth your while to check if this free service is available in your area of the country.

I stopped at Dollar Tree to pick up a few things, (seasoned salt, bar soap and a plastic drain snake) and was perusing the aisles before hitting the checkout line when I noticed that they had six-packs of Cliff Bars for a buck apiece. Not only were they unexpired, they were the “crunchy peanut” flavor that everyone likes. I grabbed three boxes and later called my friend Lise to let her know about them. She then drove over and picked up five boxes as her husband takes one per day in his work lunches.

I finally completed refinishing a midcentury credenza that I picked up at Goodwill a few years back, I started reading a library copy of Furiously Happy by Jenny Lawson, I’m trying to give away a 2005 TV and TV stand through my Buy Nothing Group, I repaired a wooden wastebasket using glue and thick rubber bands to clamp, my husband took advantage of a Spotify promotion to get a free Google Home device, (which I’ll sell) I used a Jiffy Lube coupon for a $20 oil change and I’ve been really good about cooking frugal dinners at home when all I want is to get takeout.

I didn’t buy a Lear Jet or a vulgar gold-plated apartment in the sky.

I’ve made a couple of eBay sales, including a North Face toddler-size goose down puffer jacket and a tube of M.C. Escher posters. Both were Goodwill finds, but my favorite was the lightweight coat. It was a pay-by-the-pound bins find, so the profit margin was enjoyably impressive as I likely spent 50¢ on it.

I drove past Albany, Oregon yesterday, so I stopped into their Goodwill as it’s currently my favorite. (Sorry, all other Goodwills.) I picked up a vintage craftsman-style plant stand, a pair of like-new Danskos and a groovy chrome kitchen wax paper/foil/paper towel dispenser that tugged at my heart. The total for all three items was $22.97, which is not too shabby. Of course it helped that the shoes and the plant stand both sported green tags which saved an additional 50%.

I’m in the midst of slicking up all three items so they can look their best for resale. Just think of it as their spa treatment. Ahh . . . .

I get a lot of trick-or-treaters at my house, and don’t like to scrimp. However, I’m not fond of all the plastic waste that tags along with traditional candy purchases. So this year I investigated Winco’s bulk candy section and scooped up a big bag of foil wrapped chocolate coins and a bag of paper wrapped Whoppers. My goal was to choose candy with recyclable non-plastic packaging. Whether any of the packaging actually gets recycled is out of my control, but I feel good with the effort.

The coins were a huge hit, so I think I’ll just buy them and nothing else for 2020.

I noticed that the pretty wooden gilt wastebasket in our spare bedroom had split along two of its seams. Nothing too terrible, but I wanted to deal with it before it became unfixable. I rifled through our glue options and chose a small bottle of clear Gorilla Glue, which I then ran along the detached areas. The design tapers open, so I simply used a handful of thick rubber bands to hold it tight as it dried, as a standard clamp would have been tricky.

The project took maybe 15 minutes from my day, and I’ve now repaired something that others might have chosen to throw away. Not only did I keep an item from the landfill, but I saved money, as well as the effort of having to replace this practical household item.

Click HERE to see photos from the process.

I drove through a McDonald’s for a free 6-pack of McNuggets as our basketball team had scored over 100 points, (road trip food!) I cooked up a huge pot of chili from scratch, I discovered that Winco sells Bob’s Red Mill gluten-free flour in bulk for $1.99/pound. (This is a huge savings as a 2-pound bag can cost as much as $9.99!) my husband brought home another armload of free bubble wrap from work, I’m slowly working my way though Veronica Mars through a friend’s Hulu account, I’m holding off from a haircut until the Supercuts training center does their next round of free services and I accepted a friend’s offer of two uncut pumpkins that I can turn into puree for the freezer.

I didn’t buy a Lear Jet or a vulgar gold-plated apartment in the sky.

My eBay sales perked up a bit. Not an avalanche of cash by any means, but most sales were higher value items, which makes my credit union account a wee bit happier. Sure, I get a serious dopamine hit with any little sale, but I’d rather sell a $70 pair of thrifted sneakers than a jumble of $15 tchotchkes.

Here’s what I sold:

– A pair of Chippendale-style brass drawer handles that I pulled from a free pile.

– A like-new pair of of sample Adidas sneakers. (Portland is “Sneaker Town,” so it’s not unusual to find production samples at Goodwill.)

– A studio art pepper grinder. (This went to Spain!)

– A cross stitch kit that had been languishing in my “death pile.”

I’m working with my 24-year-old daughter to convert her room from its childhood configuration to something more like a studio apartment. Step one was to upgrade her circa-1960s mattress set to something more modern. I’d been eyeing the brand new ones from Goodwill for a couple of years, and finally took the leap and bought a full-size set.

I had enough Goodwill gift cards to cover most of the cost, and since my husband and I have held onto our soccer mom minivan, we were even able to transport it home with minimal fuss.

I put the old mattress set up on my Buy Nothing Group, and got a reply from a neighbor who’s coming by for it this afternoon. I do try to buy nothing new, but since the mattress is made in the United States (and supports a nonprofit) I think I can file this under “J” for “justifiable purchase.”

Bonus: It’s really comfortable!

Check out my Instagram feed to read more about it.

My daughter’s girlfriend showed up with a package of gourmet bacon which prompted a “breakfast for dinner” that used up a satisfying number of random refrigerator contents. Mashed potatoes, eggs and the end of a jar of gluten-free breadcrumbs transformed into potato patties; sautéed onions and peppers garnished each plate and the last of an 18-pack of eggs scrambled themselves up and were topped with the grated end of some hardened cheddar cheese. I also served everyone a tiny bowl of leftover butternut squash soup.

I do love when a meal is able to incorporate the 10,001 tiny containers of leftovers that populate my refrigerator. And since the meal was delicious, absolutely zero sacrifice was required.

I reset our programmable thermostat to better reflect my family’s current schedule, I once again set out the Halloween decorations that an old neighbor gave to me maybe 15 years ago, (without ever feeling the need to add to the collection) I renewed some Craigslist listings, I dropped off our ballots at the library which saved $1.65 (the cost of three stamps) and my friend Lise just texted to ask if I wanted a half-bunch of cilantro.

I didn’t buy a Lear Jet or a vulgar gold-plated apartment in the sky.