The Non-Consumer Advocate

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

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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.”

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*Kind of.

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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.”

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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.”

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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.
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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.
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1. I stopped into Fred Meyer, thinking they had Tillamook cheese on sale. I was wrong, but I did grab a couple of “reduced” price items. I probably should’ve picked up more of the coffee, but I’m not sure if my finicky husband (who’s the coffee drinker in the family) will like it. I also grabbed these cheddar brats, which’ll pair well with my $1 Franz hoagies rolls, not to mention my homemade sauerkraut that’s just about done fermenting.

   I had a weird coupon for $1-0ff-$5 of “natural food.” This was a confusing coupon, (what the hell is “natural” food?!) but it worked for the two dozen eggs I bought, which were on sale for $3.50 apiece.

   

2. I used up my clearance shelf eggplant and bell peppers along with this dented can of diced tomatoes to make a mixed veggie pasta. I think I paid 50¢ apiece for a couple dented cans of tomatoes, but had kind of forgotten about them. Worry not, this can was intact and safe.

3. I donated platelets at the American Red Cross this afternoon, which was a first for me. I was curious what it would be like, plus they were offering $35 in gift card incentives to sweeten the deal. They also offered backpacks and T-shirts, but I’m a firm believer in not accepting things that clutter the home.

   I’m not sure I’d do it again as the anticoagulant made me feel super woozy, complete with numb lips which progressed to my entire face. (Apparently you can avoid these known side effects by taking the maximum amount of Tums the day before your donation, so I might give it another go at some point.) The process takes a few hours and keeps both arms out of commision throughout the donation, which means you can’t read a book, scroll on your phone and even scratch your nose. They did set me up with a TV and streaming services to watch, (I chose Project Runway) but it’s hard to watch that much television in one sitting. However, platelet donation helps those in need, so maybe it’s not so bad to undergo a couple hours of discomfort.

   I enjoyed the Nutter Butters, (my favorite cookie!) and even took a handful of packages home, with encouragement from the volunteer. I like to try out new experiences and this certainly falls under that category.

4. My husband and I ran an errand way across town yesterday and decided to grab lunch afterwards. There were endless restaurants to choose from, but we chose American Dream Pizza for slices. A single mushroom slice was enough for me, which I think was around $5. We’d paid for a full hour of parking, so we walked around the area and then rushed through Trader Joe’s to grab toilet paper, pasta, bananas and yogurt. We made it back to the car with a few minutes to spare, which was fortuitous as the meter maid was already writing tickets up the block!

5. My sister mailed back three spare keys to my house that always seems to bring back with her to New York.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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1. I helped myself to five unused produce bags from this abandoned grocery cart to bring home for my litter boxes. I don’t buy plastic bags for the sole purpose of filling them with cat excreta. There’s enough plastic in the world without manufacturing more to just hold pee and poop.

   I may have also scanned the receipt into the Fetch app.

   

2. I stopped at this grocery store specifically to scope out the clearance produce shelf and I’m glad that I did, as I was able to buy five colorful bell peppers and four eggplants for just $3. (I was low on veggies, but not in the mood for a full-on Winco shopping excursion.) I’ll make some kind of eggplant/pepper combo to serve with pasta. Ooh . . . I just remembered that I have sautéed spicy sausage in the freezer, which’ll complement this imagined dish!

3. My husband starts his annual two week vacation next week, but we’re going to mostly take it easy as it’s so expensive to pay for accomodation this time of year. We’ll likely go up to Mt. Hood for a few days, as a family member owns a cabin we can use, but we’ll mostly stick close to home as we pay thousands of dollars each month for the priviledge of living in our own house.

   Portlanders are incredibly lucky to live an hour or two from the Pacific Ocean, Mt. Hood, Mt. St. Helens, wine country and countless beautiful outdoor areas. I don’t really really need to “get away from it all” when “it” is already idyllic. Plus the city of Portland has become a mecca for people wanting to vacation somewhere with mild weather, hundreds of amazing restaurants and very few red baseball caps.

4. I hung out with my friend Lise while she pruned her native dogwood tree and she mentioned that the small branches make excellent stakes for gardening, so we stripped off the thin bark. This is how I now have six new stakes for my pitiful tomatoes.

5. I took out $60 from an ATM to have enough cash to fill up my gas tank, as you get a 45¢/gallon discount when you pay with cash. The predatory ATM charged me $3.50, but I belong to a credit union that reimburses a certain number of ATM fees each month. I really don’t understant why anyone would choose to bank with a traditional bank over a credit union.

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 stopped by the Franz Bakery Outlet on Saturday to grab a couple loaves of of their $1 bread for our basement freezer. (First Saturday of the month, bay-bee!) I’d hoped to score a couple more sleeves of their restaurant packaged English muffins, as each bag holds a dozen or so muffins, but such was not my luck. Instead I picked up two sleeves of bagels, one bag of their mini-bagels, some hoagie rolls and a loaf of multi-grain bread.

   All for $5!

2. I had three different neighbors ask me to keep on eye on their houses and water their plants while they vamoosed town for vacation. Not my favorite timing to have everyone leave town at the same time, but I’ll still honor the unwritten neighbor agreement that we help one another. My husband and I vacation a lot less than our neighbors, but they all do the nicest things for us on a regular basis to thank us for our efforts.

   “It takes a village” is not just about raising kids.

3. I popped into Fred Meyer (Kroger) for a half gallon of milk. I’d already loaded a digital coupon for the $1.39 milk, but also had two paper coupons for free pints of Haagen Dazs ice cream. I pulled two vanilla ice creams from the freezer case to keep to accompany fruit crumbles, but the cashier informed me that I could only use one coupon at a time, so I told her I’d only be buying the single pint. I then got home to discover both containers of ice cream. Did she do this on purpose? I’ll never know.

   I also grabbed a $1.50 bag of organic Roma tomatoes from the clearance shelf.

   

4. I baked a mixed fruit crumble, all the more delicious with my accidentally shoplifted ice cream.

5. I continue to wear my long ago thrifted clothing, maintain my own yard and garden, read library books, plan short inexpensive summer getaways, accept a less than exciting hair color, drink tap water, minimize gift giving, curb pick most “new” items that enter my house and write a blog that encourages people to use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without!

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