One Perfect Object

by Katy on January 5, 2012 · 42 comments

The perfect ladle.

One by one, I’ve been upgrading my plastic, toxic and lower quality kitchen items with their better quality Goodwill counterparts. Rubbermaid made way for Pyrex, metal replaced plastic spatulas; and Teflon? Hello, cast iron! But the one thing I’ve had a hard time finding was a nice stainless steel ladle to replace the plastic monstrosity that I must have picked up during nursing school.

That was until yesterday, when this mirrored beauty leapt into my arms at the main Goodwill. It’s so perfectly balanced, aesthetically pleasing and shiny that I swear it was forged in the bowels of Mordor. And for $1.99, easy on the change purse.

This ladle will last forever as it’s a single piece of stainless steel, and I finally can stop feeling bad about dipping a piece of toxic plastic into my lovely soups and stews.

So welcome, beautiful new spatula! Where have you been my whole life?

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Sorry, But I am Likely to Return Your Gift

by Katy on January 4, 2012 · 39 comments

Today is my 44th birthday, and I am sitting at my dining room table wearing my new Keen slippers, and looking at my new For Life teapot with built-in stainless steel filter.

Both gifts are from my husband, who is scarred from decades of me returning his gifts. In fact, he gave me a different ( but almost the same) pair of slippers for Christmas, and I declined to even try them on. (I didn’t want to make them unreturnable, plus we weren’t supposed to buy gifts for each other!) The poor guy returned the slippers, discovering that R.E.I. had now marked the slippers down half-price! So now he and I both have new slippers. (Hmm . . . does he get that “half-off” is no savings if you buy twice as much?)

Anyway . . . gotta go now. I have new Japanese exchange students coming tomorrow, as well as a whole day devoted to fun birthday activities. Like going to the main Goodwill to see if they still have that small $1.99 filter-included teapot that I almost bought the other day.

That way I can return my birthday gift and put the money towards the kids’ Japan trips.

My poor, poor husband . . .

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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The “Use it Up, Wear it Out Make it Do or Do Without” Challenge

by Katy on January 3, 2012 · 66 comments

 The following is a reprint of a previously published post. Enjoy!

I had used up the last of a bottle of shampoo the other day and was about to reach for a brand new bottle, when I took notice all the half-full shampoos that line my bathroom storage. Bottles that weren’t my favorite scent, bottles left by house guests, and all the mystery bottles that somehow snuck into my home.

These multiple items not only waste our money, but clutter our homes.

When I write “Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”  at the end of my blogs, I really mean it. This catchy little phrase is the decision making that I want my brain to automatically go through before I buy something new or throw something away.

Use it Up:

  • Have I used up every last bit of this item? (Lotion, shampoo, catsup, bread crust, etc.)
  • Is there someone in my circle who could still get some use out of it? (Hand me downs, magazines, etc.)
  • Can this household item be repaired?
  • Am I eating my leftovers?

Wear it Out:

  • Can I squeeze any more use out of this item? (Stained T-shirts can be worn under sweaters, etc.)
  • Clothing and even shoes can be repaired.

Make it Do:

  • Can I continue to use something even if it’s not perfect? (clothes, sheets and towels can be mended; missing recipe ingredients can be substituted or even omitted, etc.)

Or Do Without:

  • Instead of getting a great bargain on that cute new outfit, stuffed animal or knick-knack, can it simply not get purchased?

Which brings me to:

The Non-Consumer Advocate Use it Up, Wear it Out, Make it Do, or Do Without Challenge.

Don’t start a new shampoo until all the half-empty bottles get used. Lather up with all those small soaps brought home from hotels. Don’t throw away things that can get fixed or mended. Eat your leftovers. Fix what you can, pass along what’s still good and pass up unecessary tempting purchases.

In short, don’t be wasteful. Value your possessions, whether they be a refrigerator full of food or all the clothing and toiletries you could ever possibly use.

Don’t buy anything you already have enough of.

Are you up for a challenge?

Add your name to the comments section below to be in on the game, and we’ll all play together. Tell us about your proudest use it up moments!

Make sure to check out Jonathan Bloom’s wastedfood.com site for lots of great inspiration.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Free Dough . . . Edible and Otherwise

by Katy on January 2, 2012 · 19 comments

It may sound too single minded, but almost everything I do in my life is related to frugality. I batch my errands, I take advantage of great local deals and there’s nothing I enjoy more than going to thrift stores.

Recent frugal activities include:

  • After dropping my mother and step-father at the airport I took my younger son to Ikea, (which is right next door.) I registered for their Ikea Family program, (which gives you a free coffee or tea with every visit) and then treated my son to a lunch, as they’re running a kids-eat-free promotion at the moment. So . . . lunch for him and coffee for me, yet I didn’t spend any money. And of course, I found a penny in the parking lot, as well as an unused Forever Stamp worth 44¢.
  • My son then wanted to go to thrift stores, so we drove over to the main Goodwill, where I bought an adorable cast iron pan with tempered glass lid, a vintage blank “Memory Book” from 1953, (which I will sell on eBay) and a nice 4X6 photo album for the pictures I just had printed of all the Japanese exchange students and teachers we’ve hosted through the years. (Walgreens just had a promotion of 25 free 4X6 prints!) My son bought a wooden box that’s the perfect size for his comic books, a few comics, as well a brand new Domo T-shirt. Grand total was $19.88, and I found 4 pennies in the parking lot. Not to mention that I was spending a $20 gift card I received for Christmas!
  • My younger sister and I hung out on Friday night, and the highlights of our evening included going over my $25 Pottery Barn rug with a UV light to look for possible cat urine stains, (didn’t really find any, although I gave the rug a few squirts with the enzymatic cleaner for good measure.) as well as watching a library DVD of Away We Go. 
  • I took my sons to the local nickel video arcade, for which I had coupons for free admission and $4 bags of nickels. (Seriously, these were great coupons!) The boys played for around an hour-and-a-half, and I found $1.47 in change on the ground and in the coin-return slots. Fun for young and old alike!
  • Working to keep food waste to a minimum, yesterday’s dinner included a potatoes au gratin dish which incorporated the last of some Christmas dinner mashed potatoes; and today’s dinner of fettucini alfredo included the last of the whipping cream that had originally been paired with pumpkin pie.
  • Tonight we baked, (and then ate) chocolate chip cookies, using a tub of pre-made cookie dough from Papa Murphy’s. Apparently, I had signed up for their e-mails, which include a free tub of cookie dough for your birthday. (My birthday is January 4th.) I also walked my plastics recycling over to New Season’s on my way to get my free dough.

There’s not a single day when I’m not enjoying all the frugal pleasures that life has to offer. Sometimes it’s the obvious stuff like library books and found change, but it’s not uncommon to discover new and wonderful frugal opportunities.

It all adds up to a wonderfully rich life.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Self Improvement is Not All or Nothing

by Katy on January 1, 2012 · 42 comments

My project for 2012? I am going to put aside my found change and then add it all up on December 31st. They don't call me "Coin Girl" for nothing!

January first. A day of new beginnings. A day when citizens around the world reminisce on the previous year, and then look towards a new start and the lofty goal of self-improvement. Many choose to make new year’s resolutions, running the gambit from the ever popular lose weight and exercise more; to the increasing popular simplify my life and declutter my home.

Last year, I proposed a 52 Weeks, 52 Letters Challenge, which for me fizzled down into a 52 Weeks, 20-some Letters endeavor. To some, this may seem like a failure, but the challenge got me writing more letters than my usual two to three per year, which in and of itself was an accomplishment.

I am not an all-or-nothing kind of gal, as I see the value in the gradations of life.

I have worked very hard over the past few years to get my rather large house decluttered, and I am proud of this accomplishment. However, the house is not perfect. There’s still a constant rotation of untidy piles of papers in the dining room, as well as a basement full of miscellaneous Stuff that we actually do need to hold onto. But entertaining and hosting out of town guests is now super-easy, as tidying up is a breeze and my family’s possessions have actual homes. (When I was growing up my family made fun of people who said “A place for everything and everything in its place,” which made me think that this was not an admirable trait.)

My house is not perfect, but that’s okay. The messiness no longer gets in the way of welcoming friends and family into our home, even at a moment’s notice.

I’m not making a new year’s resolution for 2012, as I feel that self-improvement is a life-long process, without a January 1st start date that peters out by the 28th. Maybe others are able to keep their momentum going a full 365 days, but my resolutions never stuck and were a guaranteed recipe for losing interest.

I am going to put aside all my found change in 2012, and then add it all up on December 31st. This, I consider to be a fun project for Coin Girl, and has the potential to hold my interest. I have no idea how I’ll spend the money at the end of the year, and look forward to mulling over the possibilities. (Charity? A beach getaway? Savings?)

How about you? Are you taking on any lofty resolutions for 2012? Did you have one last year, and if so did it stick? Want to join me in keeping track of your found change for the year? Please share your thoughts in the comments section below!

And by the way . . . Happy New Year!!!!!!!!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Non-Consumer Mish-Mash

by Katy on December 31, 2011 · 6 comments

It’s time again for Non-Consumer Mish-Mash, where I write a little bit about this and a little bit about that.

The Non-Toxic Avenger

Normally when I get review books in the mail, I set them aside until I get a chance to give them my full attention. Sometimes, this takes a few weeks, sometimes it ends up never happening. (Confession time here . . . I’ve done a few giveaways for books I started but never finished.) However, when Deanna Duke’s The Non-Toxic Avenger: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You showed up on the mail, I squealed with joy and immediately put it in my overnight bag for our quicky getaway to Great Wolf Lodge.

For those who may not recognize her name, Deanna Duke writes under the moniker of The Crunchy Chicken, and in this book, Duke takes a hard look at all the possibly toxic substances she and her family are exposed to on a daily basis. With a husband diagnosed with cancer and a son with autism, her passion to create a non-toxic environment is deeply personal, as is her book.

I won’t go into too much detail, as I will be writing up a full length review. But suffice it say that this book is an enjoyable page-turner. (Well . . . as much as a book about toxic home environments can be.) And I did have the book finished before the last of my kids whooshed down a water slide.

End of Year Donations

Today, being December 31st is the last day you can donate to your local non-profit thrift shop to get a 2011 tax deduction. This mean two things:

  1. Gather up your unwanted, but still usable belongings for donation.
  2. This next week is the best time of year to glean fantastic goodies from non-profit thrift stores.

So whether you’re looking to declutter or accumulate, today is your day! So get going. Now!

A Little New Year’s Eve Diddy

A New Year’s gift from me to you:

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Austerity House? Nope. I Say Fantastic-ey House

by Katy on December 30, 2011 · 21 comments

This morning a link on my Twitter feed caught my yet uncaffeinated eye. “This couple did a whole house remodel out of reclaimed goods, very cool!”

So yeah, I had to click over.

The article turned out to be from Britain’s Daily Mail newspaper, and profiled Kresse Wesling and James Henrit, a couple who bought a flat that was “little more than a shell,” and then proceeded to remodel and furnish it using supplies from Freecycle, the tip, (garbage/rubbish piles) and charity shops. They even came across their lovely kitchen sink while walking in the woods!

This home reminded me of  the Maine home of Michael Fleming and Jennifer Wurst’s, which was featured here a few months ago.

Although the article itself is short, short, short, it is chock-full of fantastic photos that illustrate how paying nothing for an item is not proportional to its’ value. (My favorite ah-hah project is the kitchen cupboards they created from “a modified dresser found at the dump.”)

But this couple’s obsession with turning trash into treasure did not end when their home project was finished, as they now run a business that sells upcycled goods, called Elvis and Kresse, which donates 50% of all profits to charity.

Click HERE to read the article and luxuriate in all the great photos!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Finicky Frugal Maneuvers

by Katy on December 28, 2011 · 14 comments

My younger son and I spent yesterday afternoon running errands, which were so infused with frugality, I just had to share our day:

  • We stopped at the credit union to deposit a BlogHer check I had received from doing a paid review of the Deepak Choprah Leela video game. I swept a hand under the change counting machine a immediately came up with $1.10 in quarters, dimes and nickels.
  • We ran into Grand Central Bakery, mentioned their Tweets for Treats program and were rewarded with a free loaf of lovely bread. I left a $1.10 tip.
  • Shopped for birthday present socks for my mother-in-law at Sock Dreams, making sure to bring my $5 off Chinook Book coupon. I also had them enter my Supportland card info, which will eventually get me some free stuff.
  • Brought home three bags of day-old bagels from Kettleman’s Bagels, as they are always buy-two-get-one-free.
  • Walked to Fred Meyer to buy cream cheese and a few general food items. (Buying cream cheese from bagel places is always cr-azy expensive!)
  • Received a review copy of Crunchy Chicken’s The Non-Toxic Avenger: What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You, by Deanna Duke.
  • Used my Christmas bonus “Free Turkey or Ham” gift certificate at Safeway to get a 10-lb spiral-cut ham. We’ll use the ham for sandwiches, and probably freeze a fair amount of it. Also bought two bags of BOGO pistachios. I had a $1 off coupon, which I doubled.
  • Today we leave for a complimentary stay at Great Wolf Lodge, and we’ll bring our own food to keep it as cheap as possible. It’s free because we had an odd incident happen when we were there in August, (I won’t go into it) and Great Wolf gave us a voucher as their way of an apology. The Grand Bear Suite that we’ll be staying in normally costs $500, so needless to say, we’re uber excited!

Have a great and frugal day, we are out of here!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Reality — I Am Neither Extreme Nor Am I a Cheapskate

by Katy on December 27, 2011 · 48 comments

Regular readers know that I was filmed a few months back for a national reality TV show. I was supposed to keep the details on the down low, so I was vague about any details. Then, last week, a British reader spied a newspaper article about the show, which included  a still shot of me dumpster diving a rug. So yeah . . . I figured the secretive part was over, and I announced that I was going to be part of TLC’s Extreme Cheapskates.  I did notice that none of the press releases mentioned me, but I figured it was because I was neither weird nor extreme enough to dazzle the media. I was A-OK with that.

The filming experience was certainly interesting, and the actual crew, (many of them local to Portland) were all very nice, especially the director. I enjoyed seeing my kids get comfortable being on camera, and thought it was funny when the director complimented me, saying I was a “good actor,”  to which I replied, “don’t you mean sociopath?” Because seriously, pretending to be yourself is as weird and surreal as can be. A socially acceptable personality disorder in modern day society.

But I got a phone call yesterday from someone at the production company telling me that my entire segment had been cut from the show. I had her repeat the news, because I couldn’t believe that I had turned over my entire home and family for two 14-hour days for nothing.

Nothing.

I am not looking for fame, and frankly, was less than pleased when I heard the title of the show, as I am neither “Extreme” nor am I a “Cheapskate.” In fact, the production company refused to even tell me the title of the show until I was well into the process of participating. The only way I was able to glean this information was to trick a lowly production assistant into spilling the beans.

The person on the phone, (who I had never dealt with before) told me that my segment might be included in a future episode if the show is picked up as a series, but at this point I really don’t care either way.

I had hoped national TV exposure would bring new readers to the blog, and even help to get that elusive book contract. I was not looking for a spot on The Real Housewives of Portland. (Can you imagine it? It would hilarious!)

So I’m back to actual reality again. Picking up change, (I found $3.14 yesterday) finagling great free stuff, reselling Goodwill finds and  chilling out with my terrific teenagers.

Frankly, a much better reality.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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Update: After watching the show I am *really happy* to have not been included in the show. I think I totally dodged a bullet!

 

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Giveaway — 100 Thing Challenge

by Katy on December 26, 2011 · 165 comments

Note: This giveaway has ended.

Today, in the post-Christmas gluttony that is December 26th, I offer up a giveaway of Dave Bruno’s The 100 Thing Challenge: How I Got Rid of Almost Everything, Remade My Life and Regained my Soul.

And in case this giveaway seems like one more thing to add to your life, I invite you to read this copy and then pass it along to a friend. And not to brag on my non-consumer cred, but this particular copy was bought by yours truly at the library second hand store on a buy-one-get-three-free day! (Such fantastic deals, I almost stroked out!)

To enter this giveaway, write something in the comments section about whether you are simplifying your possessions and your life. I will randomly choose a winner on Tuesday, December 27th at 9:00 P.M. U.S. residents only, please enter one time only.

Good luck!

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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