The Non-Consumer Advocate

1. My daughter and I are sorting through her immense amount of stuff, and we’re being very deliberate with how everything is distributed. (Seriously, she has so much stuff!) Anything Japanese goes to the local Japanese language immersion program, a few things are listed on eBay, clothing is donated to Goodwill and special items are being gifted to her friends. The goal is to transition her childhood bedroom into a studio apartment of sorts, which requires some ruthless decision making. She’ll get her own apartment at some point, but we’re happy to have her at home for now.

   I also went through a bit of my son’s stuff and donated his expensive martial arts outfit back to his old studio. There’s no reason for it to take up precious space in our home when it no longer even fits! My sister jokes about how there’s an inverse relationship with how much you spend on martial arts supplies and how interested your kid is in the classes. But really, this could apply to all kid activities.

2. I’m giving my couch one last chance after having been peed on by a certain cat a few weeks ago. (Hyena, it was Hyena!) I literally poured the enzymatic cleaner onto the cushions in the desperate hope that it’ll soak as deep as the urine. I’ll then spray the heck out of them with a power washer once the solution had a chance to eat away at the offending nastiness. Portland is forecast for multiple days of rare hot and sunny weather which should dry out the thick cushions. It’s definitely a last ditch effort to save this miserable couch. I could buy a new (to me) couch, but the last thing I want to do is to repeat this buy-couch-ruin-couch cycle.

   For those worrying about our two cats, they’ve been pronounced healthy and currently enjoy a luxurious numbers of litter boxes which are liberally sprinkled throughout the house. Specifically right next to the couch. So gross.

   I’ll understand if you prefer to stand when visiting our home.

3. Sarah from Go Budget Girl published her YouTube video of us “Treasure Ranger-ing” at the Goodwill outlet bins. The audio at the beginning is clanky, but if you can power through the first few minutes it’s worth the effort. The video is part one of two, the second of which will air on Thursday.

   Click HERE to watch the video!

4. My husband fixed a dresser drawer which had split, I walked to Fred Meyer for lettuce and bought nothing more than lettuce, (so challenging as it was after dinner and the ice cream aisle was whispering my name) I proposed more freelance article ideas, I reached out to a high end store about buying one of my gorgeous thrifted mirrors, I’m planning a Seattle mini-break, complete with free housing, (thanks, Lisa!) and I picked up various lovely bread items at the Dollar Tree.

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

Now your turn. What frugal things have you been up to?

Katy Wolk-Stanley    

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

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1. I spent a couple hours pruning my backyard hydrangeas, as well as hacking away at some oppressively low maple tree branches. I then swept and raked the brick patio for an overall tidy/well kept aesthetic. (Note the lack of words such as “impressive” or spectacular.”) I don’t want to make you jealous, but I filled two rolling yard debris containers!

   The patio furniture cushions were impressively grimy, so I treated them to a spa day soak in my beloved Dollar Tree Oxyclean. The end result? Perfectly fine. Not perfect, not magazine ready and certainly not like new. They’re now completely acceptable and I kept them out of the landfill for one more year.

   The mindset to replace things when they’re dirty or broken is important to resist. Especially when consumer goods seem cheaper than ever. The environmental ramifications of buying-and-tossing is killing our planet, so I challenge you to give your stuff a second chance whenever possible.

   Click HERE to see the before and after.

2. I didn’t end up buying Fred Meyer fuchsia starts for my three hanging baskets this year. Even though they’re priced at just 5-for-$3, I didn’t feel like spending the $9. I’d been rooting some free spider plant babies on the kitchen counter and realized that there were enough to fill one of the hanging baskets. (My dad has a huge spider plant in his kitchen that I occasionally snip from.) I now have a filled planter which cost me $0.00, and there’s an extra $9 in my credit union account. Click HERE to see the planted basket.

   Bonus win — no plastic packaging!

3. I ran out of milk yesterday, so I walked to the grocery store where I was delighted to find half-price 2% gallons for just $1.49! (Yes, “delighted.” I stand by this word.) The expiration date isn’t even until May 13th!

4. I finished listening to a free audiobook through the library’s Libby app, I sold a vintage marmalade crock for $25 after having paid $1 for it, I crisped up three almost empty boxes of stale Chex cereals in the oven, I unscrewed and then cleaned up a gorgeous old doorknob from a dumpstered door, I chose to do some writing at Ikea to take advantage of their free coffee and battery recycling, I listed more stuff on eBay and I stopped by Trader Joe’s and bought nothing more than their 19¢ bananas. No hummus, no snacks, no booze, no cookies.

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

Now your turn. What frugal things have you been up to?

Katy Wolk-Stanley    

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

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I sold a Starbucks travel mug for $30, (that I’d just picked up for $3) which necessitated a fresh acquisition of bubble wrap. Luckily, there’s a musical instrument store in the neighborhood which always has ginormous bags of free packaging materials for the taking.

Not that it’s a “frugal thing,” but can you appreciate how pretty that bubble wrap is? Enough to make a girl snuggle up and release just a wee bit of oxytocin, aka “the love hormone.”

Or as William Morris so eloquently put it, “Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful, or believe to be beautiful.”

Katy Wolk-Stanley    

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

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1. I sold a few things on eBay including a handmade cribbage board, a credit card reader, a vintage style clock and the Furby that I picked up last week. I also sold a pair of Danskos and a cat bed through Facebook Marketplace.

   I picked up a few things to sell including a Fiestaware deviled egg dish, a vintage barkcloth curtain panel, some zippered banking pouches and an eight-year-old Starbucks travel mug.

2. I met up with Sarah from Go Budget Girl, who was in Portland for a work conference. Together we hit up the main pay-by-the-pound Goodwill Outlet, where she filmed me for her YouTube channel. I really enjoyed our time together and look forward to see how she edits the tremendous amount of footage into a coherent video. Not to give away too many spoilers, but she did concoct a goofy game show for me!

3. My friend Lise and I spent a few hours “parallel playing” at a local non-profit community space/coffee shop. She treated me to a drip coffee and we both worked on our laptops. She works from home so it can hard to justify social gatherings, but we’re both disciplined about staying on task. We chat during the drive, plus a few minutes here and there. Plus there’s the accountability of having a friend to keep us on task. A perfect solution for people who work from home and can feel isolated.

4. I stopped into the Dollar Tree store for bread, and although they didn’t have any of the dense multi-grain loaves that I prefer, I did pick up a couple sleeves of bagels and English muffins, I wrote up a Clark Howard article on how to price garage sale items, I made a large pot of super cheap red lentil soup and I accepted a loaf of homemade bread from my father.

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

Now your turn. What frugal things have you been up to?

Katy Wolk-Stanley    

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

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1. I sold a needlepoint piece that I’d had up on eBay for 103 years, as well as a thrifted Stumptown Coffee mug, (which is a local coffee chain.) I’d bought the mug as a experiment as I’d heard that people collect them, so I now know to grab up when they hit the thrift store shelves. I then picked up a classic $4.99 midcentury-style chair and a creepy little Furby, both from Goodwill. I did not buy the Lonely Lady Arm Pillow™.

   I did complete refinishing the midcentury end table, which I have up for sale on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist. I had some initial interest, but none of the I have to drive over right now buyers came through. That’s okay though, as it’s a great piece and I know it’ll sell. My living room goes through periods of resembling a furniture showroom, but it no longer fazes us.

2. I worked all weekend at the hospital and enjoyed the deliciousness of a unit-wide Easter potluck that sustained me throughout the entire 12-1/2 hour shift. I brought chocolate dipped strawberries, and needless to say I drank the free so-so coffee. To be precise, I drank a Herculean amount of coffee, as continuous snacking on cookies/cheesecake/coffee cake/brownies is draining to even the most energetic RN.

3. I asked for and received an armload of used padded envelopes from my neighbor who orders a lot of stuff from Amazon. She’s happy to set them aside to save them from the landfill, and I’m happy to source free packaging materials for my eBay sales. I spied another neighbor tucking envelopes into her trash can and told her I could reuse them. We then chatted for a bit and she ran into the house to grab a book for me to return as I was on my way to the library.

   Building community within a neighborhood can be as simple as returning one another’s library books and sharing resources.

4. I turned off the heat as the sun miraculously emerged from behind her cloudy fortress. Of course, it was but a few hours of respite from the rain, but it still gave me hope that the sun will once again grace Oregon with her warm and loving embrace.

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

Now your turn. What frugal things have you been up to?

Katy Wolk-Stanley    

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

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1. I sold a cute vintage barstool as well as that kid’s Trek bike that I scrubbed up and featured in a previous blog post. Both of these sales were through Facebook Marketplace. I also sold a streaming Blu-ray player through eBay. The barstool and bike were $5 Goodwill items, and I think I forked out $20 for the Blu-ray player. I try not to buy stuff to sell unless I can clear at least $20 from the sale, although I’ve been known to disobey my own rules. This may sound like a lot of work, but putting together a listing takes less than five minutes, and it’s something I can do while inventing new ways to split the atom watching TV in the evenings.

2. I just worked three days and packed my own lunches and slurped up a tremendous amount of the free mediocre coffee. I know this is far from a lightning bolt piece of advice, but the money I’ve saved from twenty four years of forgoing on-site hospital food would likely run into the tens of thousands of dollars. Have I ever bought lunch from the cafeteria? Sure, but it’s just a couple times per year when real life has gotten in the way of my best intentions.

   The hospital where I work allows you to activate your work badge as a debit card, thus deducting all on-site purchases from your paycheck. I long ago made a conscious decision to decline this program, (even when it provided a 5% discount on all purchases) as I felt it would make it way too painless to inadvertently nickel and dime my paycheck away. I’m there to make money, not spend it.

3. Portland has been oppressively grey and rainy over the past week, which doesn’t exactly inspire me to to go and about and live my best life. However, there’s an upside to cocooning indoors, which is that it’s hard to spend $5 here and $10 there if you’re embracing the indoor life. I don’t have a habit of online shopping, which means that indoor days = zero spend days. Having said this, I’ll welcome the sunshine if it ever deigns to return.

4. I popped into The Dollar Tree to pick up shampoo, conditioner and quality surplus bread, I’m stopping at the library to return a DVD that’s due as well as pick up a hold copy of Susan Orlean’s The Library Book, I accepted an offer from my father to take me to lunch and I’m scheduling a time to help my mother clean her Airbnb guest cottage whose long term tenant vamoosed in the night.

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

Now your turn. What frugal things have you been up to?

Katy Wolk-Stanley    

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

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1. I sold a pair of thrifted soccer cleats and a bicycle pannier through eBay, as well as a pair of Dansko sandals and an American Girl doll through Facebook Marketplace. I’m arranging to work eight hours of paid online education that I can complete at home. Nurse wages while wearing pajamas? That’s the dream!

2. I schlepped my tuchus across town for another large grocery shopping trip to Winco. They’re far from convenient, but their prices are low enough to make it worth the effort. Plus, you can’t beat that they reimburse you 6¢ per bag.

3. I whisked my mother off for a Goodwill Outlet (bins) adventure. My goal is always to find things I can sell on eBay, but I also keep an eye out for things my friends and family can use. This is why I nabbed a set of dog waste bags for my friend Lise. (Brand new — I know I shouldn’t have to clarify this, but I concurrently know that I should.) For myself I bought a vintage linen tea towel, a quality sweater for my husband and a doll dress for my childhood Sasha doll, as I keep stealing her clothes to plump up American Girl doll listings. (Because the only thing creepier than a 51-year-old woman who still loves her childhood doll, is a 51-year-old woman who insists that her doll be nekkid.)

   To sell, I bought a fancy cat bed, a guitar case, a Kermit The Frog plush, a set of alien refrigerator magnets, a youth baseball glove, a Microsoft keyboard, and two pink midcentury hand towels. I also paid for my mother to buy a creamer and sugar and maybe something else. And I don’t mean to brag, (I totally do!) but everything has been photographed and listed. Otherwise I’m just a hoarder.

   The total was $20.65. 

4. My neighbor is lending me a black light flashlight so I can face my fears and investigate whether my cat has been urinating anywhere besides the new couch. I live in fear right now, but it’s better to not bury my head in the sand. §¢¢®©ƒ¥§∞∞§¶¥†©¥¶§!!!!!

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

Now your turn. What frugal things have you been up to?

Katy Wolk-Stanley    

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

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