The Non-Consumer Advocate

My husband and I are finally back at home in Portland. And yes, we’re positive for Covid again after completing our five day cycle of Paxlovid.

We flew home, but only after consulting with the NYC public health doctor who told us it would be safe to fly as long as we wore masks throughout the entire direct flight. We took it seriously and it was a looong day! Somehow the ticketed person who’d booked the third seat in our row didn’t show up, which was an amazing gift from the Alaska Airlines gods. I didn’t want to smoosh up against a stranger and potentially expose them to Covid.

We even spent an hour or two planning an alternate trip home, going so far as switching out our rental car plan to drop it off in Portland instead of JFK airport. But the doctor convinced us that it was fine to fly as we were fully vaccinated, had completed our round of Paxlovid and were 11 days out from our initial Covid tests.

This trip was not what we’d planned for our 30th anniversary, but it also wasn’t as dreadful as it sounds, as it was nice to just chill out with my sister in her new house. She had a couple tasks she’d wanted to my husband to tackle and he ended up doing every damned thing on that list. (And then some!)

Here’s what he did:

• Hung our great-grandmother’s ginormous heavy Venetian antique mirror, which is now part of the house’s structure.
• Replaced all eight of her smoke/carbon monoxide detectors.
• Replaced her dumb thermostat with a smart one, which was greatly discounted through her electric company.
• Pulled out and cleaned all her air conditioner filters, which apparently wasn’t a priority for the previous owners. So much dust and gunk!
• We installed the classic Portland address tiles on her house, which was my hostess gift.
• Replaced her kinked dryer vent and removed the back of the dryer to scrape out all the errant lint.
• Installed some bathroom accessories that she’d already bought and set aside. (Toilet paper holder, towel racks, etc.)
• Took a torn window screen to her local hardware store, where the owner replaced the screen for just ten bucks!
• Took down and cleaned a few ceiling lights, which was easy as we already had the ladder out.

My sister was over the moon grateful.

We did have two days at the beginning of the trip before we tested positive, as well as two days after the Paxlovid when we felt great and were testing negative and we got to cram in hanging out with various NYC friends. Luckily we didn’t get any said friends sick, which I consider a huge win.

We did get my sister sick. Sorry.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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My husband and I are still visiting my sister in New York, although we’re quarantining at home instead of engaging in anything that New York has to offer. However, we did have a couple of Covid-free days before our self-imposed lockdown began.

1. We went to dinner on our actual 30th anniversary, but chose an Italian restaurant that was walking distance from my sister’s house and it was perfect. The portions were comically large and I had enough leftover linguine with clam sauce for another entire meal.

2. My sister got us into The American Museum of Natural History for free using her employee pass. We then got pizza slices at Famous Original Ray’s Pizza close to the museum and lastly grabbed a couple things from Zabar’s.

   I wore my mask both at the museum and at Zabar’s and we didn’t sit close to anyone at Ray’s. Not because I had any inkling that I was Covid positive, but because it’s what I’ve been doing since the beginning of the pandemic. I’m guessing this practice is why it’s taken me until now to come down with my very first case.

3. We then drove our rental car out of the museum parking lot, (only $12 for employees!) to Jackson Heights, Queens to meet up with our friend Greta for dinner. She chose the Jackson Diner for an Indian food, which was unsurprisingly the best Indian food I’ve ever had the privilege to eat. Lots of leftovers, which were even better the next day!

   Afterwards we hung out in her backyard courtyard and then up to her apartment for a thorough catch up session before heading back to my sister’s house.

4. My sister had a backlog of free unopened Covid-19 tests for when my husband said “My throat is kind of sore, maybe I should take Covid test just to be careful” and the 15 seconds later when the brightest bold red line showed up on his test. Ironically, I’m the sickest but my line was faint and took the full fifteen minutes to appear.

5. I didn’t test positive for a Lear Jet.

I’m still feeling cruddy, with an extreme sore throat and generalized lack of energy and I’m missing my comfort items something special. You know . . . like my own bed, my perfectly positioned bedside table, the coffee table that’s big enough to play solitaire without having to be cleared of all other stuff. Essentially, my home.

Katy Wolk-Stanley

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

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1. I pulled out my master packing list that I created after our June trip to Nebraska. My goal is to cut down on reinvention of the wheel, so I can put in the work once and keep a template on hand for future travel. The idea  is to have everything I need and nothing extra, and for the love of Pete, to not buy things I already have at home!

   Many of you have shared that you’ve created similar lists, either as spreadsheets or through your notes apps. I’m old school, so I printed out a half dozen sheets and slipped them into a plastic sleeve to keep inside my suitcase. My week was much more relaxed as I wasn’t madly assembling a packing list, just adding a thing or two that were specific to this trip.

2. An old friend invited me over for brunch, which was absolute perfection. The food was delicious, (sausages, eggs, olive toast and fruit bowls) and the pace was unhurried, which rarely happens in a restaurant setting. We were able to spend three full hours catching up on each other’s lives and it was priceless.

3. I stopped by Goodwill in search of an extra decent T-shirt or two. I didn’t find one, but I did score a Land’s End chenille sweater that’s an exact match of the one I wear all day every day in winter. (Although in a different color.) Not actually a welcome garment for August in NYC, but the rich get their sweaters in the winter and apparently I get mine in the summer.

   I’d set up an eBay alert for any time someone listed this specific sweater a couple years ago, but didn’t get any notifications. Everything that’s ever been manufactured will eventually show up in a thrift store.

4. • I brought a bouquet of backyard hydrangeas to my friend’s house.
   • I stocked up on semi-healthy Trader Joe’s food for our long travel day.
   • I picked up a $7.50 pair of replacement rear taillight bulbs for my son’s car. He only needed one, but now he’s set for the future. My husband then showed him how to replace the bulb on his own.

5. I didn’t forage a Lear Jet.

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. We moved our yard debris can from the side of the house to the back yard, which caused an increase of nasty flies around our back porch. (My husband is working on the foundation for this side of the house, so it’s a temporary issue.) Excessive flies are nothing new, as the neighbors have a magnolia tree right on the property line, and magnolias predate bees so they’re pollinated instead by flies. Yuck, yuck and more yuck!

   I’ve seen a hack where people hang Ziploc bags filled with water and a few pennies outside to deter flies and although I’m skeptical about the efficacy of this goofy method, it’s a low stakes starter effort. So I hung a couple bags out this morning to see if I can solve this problem with what I already had on hand.

   I’ll let you know if it seems to work.

2. My son and his girlfriend went raspberry and blueberry picking last weekend and we still had a half cup of squishy berries hiding at the back of the fridge. I didn’t want them to go to waste, so I dropped them into a Dutch baby and holy hell was it delicious! The baked pancake didn’t puff up in the way it normally would, but it was still absolute ambrosia!

3. Portland houses have very pretty tile address numbers, back from when the whole city was standardized in 1931. Portlanders tend to be a bit sentimental about their address numbers, including my sister who just bought a house in The Bronx. Luckily there’s a local artisan who makes reproductions, so I drove across town to Hippo Hardware and snagged her numbers. I even brought in a thrifted lighting fixture piece to sell to them, which got me $10 off the purchase price.

   I now have a hostess/housewarming gift for when we visit next month, and I know It’ll be a big hit for my sentimental sister.

4. • I returned some library books a few days after they were due, but my system no longer charge late fees. Not purposely late, but it’s nice to not worry about fees anymore.
   • I drove around with Goodwill donations in the back of the car for a few days until I was in the neighborhood of a donation spot. This saved me from driving for a single errand.
   • I emptied out, cleaned and organized our “art cart” which is a rolling six-drawer cart and was in a frustratingly jumbled state. I tested every pen and hand sharpened every pencil. I then sorted the 200+ colored pencils and then put a hundred or so in our little free library. They were gone by morning, which made me very happy!
   • I hand painted some standard sticky labels for last week’s blackberry jam. I then gave a jar to my son’s girlfriend and one to my mother. I plan on berry picking one more time this week.

5. I didn’t forage a Lear Jet.

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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I try to have my “frugal things” be somewhat significant, (which is hopefully informative) but there’s always the smaller things that fall under the radar, so I thought I’d share a blog post where no thing is too small.

1. I drove past a tasty looking free pile a few blocks from the house, but was on my way home from Winco Foods so I didn’t pull the car over. I returned that evening and helped myself to eight black plastic hangers to stock my daughter’s childhood bedroom that I’m slooooowly reassembling. This is one more than the set they sell at Dollar Tree, but I consider it a win if I can bypass standard consumerism and avoid triggering the manufacture of a brand new item.

2. We’ve been running the fan on our portable air conditioner instead of the air conditioning at night as the outside temps have been in the mid-sixties. Our bedroom faces west and really heats up on summer afternoons, so we normally crank the AC for an hour before we go to bed and then while sleeping. This should save us some money on our next electric bill.

3. I donated a bag of kitchen doo dads to Goodwill and wasn’t even slightly tempted to go inside to shop.

4. I’ve been slowly working my way through a box of Matzoh crackers that I picked up for a dollar at my dented vegetable store. I rarely buy crackers, so it’s a nifty afternoon snack when paired with sliced cheese. I even made sure to put the crackers into a ziploc bag within the box so they won’t go stale. Nothing frugal about food waste.

5. I didn’t buy a tiny Lear Jet.

Now your turn, what tiny frugal things have you been up to?

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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