The Non-Consumer Advocate

The “check engine light” blinked back on in my Prius, so I drove the dratted thing back to our trusty mechanic. I’m not clear on the specifics, but the issue was once again related to the catalytic converter, but it was still under warranty from last summer’s theft debacle so were able to get it replaced for free. Which incidentally reset the 12-month warranty.

My husband turned 56, and we celebrated it with one of our traditional “Birthday Day of Adventures.” These traditions are getting harder to plan, as A) I try not to repeat activities, and B) the pandemic has decreased the number of things that are available and safe.

However, I got the idea to treat my husband and son to a day trip to McMenamin’s Kalama Harbor Lodge Hotel/Brewpub, which is just an hour north of Portland. (Sadly, our daughter had to work that day.) Situated on the Columbia river, this hotel sits on a riverside walkway with picnic areas, sports grounds and magnificent totem poles.

Although I’ve passed the lodge countless times, this was my first visit. I’ll definitely be returning, although I might choose to pack a picnic for future trips as our lunch bill was a bit shocking.

My son turned 23 a few days later and I planned his “Birthday Day of Adventures” to be a bit more frugal. The two of us had recently visited the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Gardens and I’d noticed that he was interested in the public golf course across the lake. I checked their website and noted that $12.50 gets you a bucket of 100 balls, including the golf clubs. I called to confirm that they could be shared by multiple golfers and that no reservation was required. I learned that all four of us enjoyed hitting balls into the driving range. So much so that we forked over $12.50 for an extra 100 balls.

We then drove over to Uwujimaya, (which is a huuge Japanese grocery store) where we indulged in delicious bowls of ramen soup and then browsed the store. My son picked out a Japanese mechanical pencil and the rest of us chose sweets.

Dinner was homemade Mexican chicken soup, complete with fun toppings, (diced avocado, shredded cheese, cilantro, fried tortilla strips and sour cream) which was perfect as none of us were hungry for a heavy meal. Dessert was a Costco cheesecake, (my son’s favorite) which we shared with my mother and step father. We’re all fully vaccinated and are finally able to enjoy each other’s indoor company.

Replacing “things” with “experiences” is no sacrifice, and we look forward to these days together. I plan them out as secrets which brings an extra element of fun, (I no longer share plans with my husband as he’s notorious for spoiling the surprise by blurting out “we’d better get on the road if we’re going to the beach!”) I love creating these family birthday celebrations and cherish the time together.

I gave away a vintage apron through my Buy Nothing Group, I scrubbed down and then sold a Simple Human brand garbage can that a neighbor set out for free, I brought an embarrassingly large bag of spent batteries and light bulbs to Ikea for free proper disposal, my son and I hit the Rhododendron Garden during one of their free days, (Mondays and Tuesdays) and I cooked a thousand meals from scratch.

I didn’t buy a Lear Jet.

The “check engine” light on my Prius had been going off intermittently, so I made an appointment and brought it to my neighborhood mechanic. I’d already stopped by a nearby auto supply store to take advantage of their “free check engine light” service and got the message of “something something catalytic converter.” Although the mechanic was able to access the record of the alert, she didn’t find anything wrong with the catalytic converter. (Remember when it was stolen last summer? Ugh!)

I also asked her to take a look at the battery, which died on me a couple of weeks ago. She found that the battery was low, but it charged up without issue. The car was also two quarts short on oil, which she topped up.

Grand total? $11.98 for the oil. I was expecting to pay at least a couple hundred dollars for everything, so this was great news. I love my mechanic!

Although I did pick up a few items at Goodwill, (a kid’s Trek bike, some Ikea fabric, a TV wall mount) I’m mainly focusing my reselling efforts on cross listing what I already have. This means posting my Facebook Marketplace stuff over on Craigslist and NextDoor, and then some of my eBay stuff on Facebook Marketplace. It’s a finicky job and not particularly fun, but it does increase the number of eyes on my merchandise.

I received an email from my son’s university that his “online billing statement is now available.” My first thought was “fuuuuuuuuuuuck!!!!” as said son graduated from college, and I thought my days of receiving these bills were in the past! But I clicked the link and discovered that this billing statement was actually notifying me of an $818.44 overpayment. A couple of emails later and that sweet sweet money is now sitting pretty in my savings account.

My son and I drove through McDonald’s for a free McFlurry, my husband brought more free bubble wrap home from work, with the exception of $1 tacos on Tuesdays I’ve cooked all meals from scratch, I’m rooting some cuttings from my father’s Maranta Leuconeura, (prayer plant) I washed and detailed my filthy (yet functional) car in the driveway, and my husband is visiting family, so I signed him up for a $14 AARP (American Association of Retired People) membership so he can get a 12-15% discount on the motel bill.

By the way, you only need to be 50 years old or married to someone over fifty to qualify for an AARP membership.

I didn’t buy a Lear Jet.

I got home from running errands and noticed that my neighbor was taking advantage of the hot sunny weather to power wash his car. Although I do have access to a power washer, (both my step mother and my next door neighbor let me borrow theirs) it’s a pain to set up and put away so I normally wait until I have a butt load significant amount of stuff to be cleaned.

My family uses a large wicker basket as our laundry hamper, but it can get a bit grubby. I’d noticed some superficial mildew and was thinking I’d give it a spray the next time I was in possession of a power washer, so I grabbed the basket  and asked my neighbor if he’d give it a quick spritz. He happily obliged and the basket now looks as good as new. And since it was a hot sunny day it even dried before the sun went down!

My son and I drove over to the Franz Bakery Outlet to stock up on bread. I learned that they run a Tuesday special of an extra $10 punch on their frequent buyer cards. This may not sound newsworthy, but it only takes five punches to earn a reward of five free bakery items. Considering that my sandwich loving husband’s preferred bread is normally $5 per loaf, this has the potential for significant savings.

I guess I’ll try to remember to run this errand on Tuesdays.

I surprised my daughter with a trip for gluten-free fish and chips, which was a special treat due to her dietary restrictions. This takeout was a splurge as we don’t normally choose restaurants with $20 entrées, but I made sure to eat beforehand to keep the tab under control.

My daughter savored every delicious bite.

My son sold a pair of $40 thrifted sneakers for $235 through my eBay account, I returned a bra that didn’t fit right, (why does the cup size change when the band size goes up?!) we skipped Taco Tuesday this week as my son had booked a 7:39 P.M. vaccination in a far out suburb, I mended the belt loop on a pair of my husband’s work pants, I listened to Jenny Lawson’s Broken: In The Best Possible Way through the free Libby app and then started listening to Sarah Penner’s The Lost Apothecary, I lugged home a curbside stack of free organizing cube pieces and have been using them to put our closets in order, (click HERE for a “before & after”) I sold a $5 bag of wooden marble roll blocks for $25 and a $5 framed Andy Warhol poster for $40 through Facebook Marketplace, I cut dogwood and lilac sprigs from my mother’s garden and I went for a walk with my friend Lise, and while I didn’t bring anything home she grabbed a couple stainless steel dog bowls for an upcoming dog sitting stint.

I didn’t buy a Lear Jet.

I sold a number of things through eBay and Facebook Marketplace, including:

• A pair of $3.99 crampons that sold for $65.

• A $2.99 Stumptown Coffee artist collaboration mug that sold for $30.

• A pair of my son’s old Nike sneakers that sold for $40.

• A $9.99 partial set of Marimekko sheets that sold to someone in Australia for $32.

• A $4.99 Sylvania DVD/VCR combo that sold for $50.

• A $4.99 collection of 1990’s keychains that sold for $19. This was the leftovers from a huge bag of keychains from which I’d already cherry picked the more desirable items.

I binged my way through four seasons of HBO Max’s The Great Pottery Throwdown, which made me nostalgic for the pottery classes I took from Antioch College’s world renowned professor Karen Shirley.

I made dozens upon dozens of pieces, but short sightedly sold almost everything at a stoop sale as A: I was broke, and B: I didn’t relish schlepping heavy breakable things from Ohio back to Oregon. Luckily two of my friends bought pieces and miraculously kept them through the decades. So thank you Lisa and Maura, I love seeing my creations in your homes.

I did keep one vase, which I gave to my father and step mother, but it turns out that they didn’t remember that I’d been the person who made it and there was no issue with me reclaiming it. My vase is now enjoying pride of place on the mantle and I love owning a piece of my own artwork again.

Note — The above photo is the piece my friend Maura has kept since 1998, not the one I gave to my father!

For those wondering about how my world renowned cheapness and an HBOMax subscription co-exist . . . my husband signed up for a month of the service, which we’ll cancel after 30 days have elapsed. Watch the stuff that interests us and and then move on.

I sacrificed a single-armed pair of reading glasses to repair my only decent pair of sunglasses. Luckily the scavenged screw was the correct size and I’m relieved to be headed into sunny sky season without resorting to the scratched up pairs that multiply while I sleep.

I used my vaccination card to get my son a free Krispy Kreme donut, (it’s across the street from Goodwill, so there was almost no extra driving) I returned a $27.99 case of Kirkland brand canned cat food that my normally gluttonous cats refused to eat, we enjoyed a few meals from a Costco rotisserie chicken and then transformed it into an enormous pots of soup, my husband brought home an armload of bubble wrap from work, I cut a spray of forsythia from my garden to make a nice flower bouquet, I drove my 14-year-old Prius to the nearby O’Reilly Auto Parts store to take advantage of their free “check engine light testing” service, I gave away a jumble of excess reusable water bottles through my Buy Nothing Group, we’ve been enjoying hot buttery popcorn from bulk-purchased kernels and a thrifted air popper, I’ve been listening to Emily Henry’s Beach Read through the library Libby app and I received my second free Covid-19 vaccination.

I didn’t buy a Lear Jet.

I sold a number of items on eBay, including:

• A CPR dummy, which I bought for $15 and sold for $90.

• A pair of Wii controllers, which I bought for $8.99 and sold for $45.

• An almost weightless rosary that I bought at pre-pandemic at a Goodwill Outlet. Paid maybe 10¢ and sold for $10.

• A Super Mario Sunshine video game that I bought for $4.99 and sold for $55.

• A Miele vacuum floor brush that I bought for 99¢ and sold for $23.

• A Microsoft ergonomic keyboard that I bought for $4.99 and sold for $38.

• A vintage Patagonia fleece vest that I bought for $12.99 and sold for $50.

• A Rock Band Guitar Hero gaming guitar that I bought for $4.99 and sold for $50.

My son woke up with an idea to go treasure hunting for something to sell on eBay. We grabbed our masks and hit two Beaverton Goodwills with the theory that the thrift stores nearest to the Nike campus would yield the most valuable sneakers. (His specific area of expertise.) This strategy paid off as he scored a $40 pair of highly desirable “Air Dunk” Nikes that should sell for $250.

They’ve been cleaned up and are ready for him to photograph, so I’ll keep you in the loop of how well this $40 gamble pays off.

I gave away a couple of items through my Buy Nothing group. These were things that I’d bought for resale, yet had been unable to unload. They’d been sitting in my spare bedroom for years and I was happy to put them in the hands of people who wanted them.

The small amount of money spent was a sunk cost, so I lost nothing giving these items away for free.

I picked up more free used packaging material from a local business, my son and I stopped at the Franz bakery outlet for bread and bagels and I made sure to spend over $10 to qualify for a free loaf, I brought some ginger snaps to my favorite taco cart owner who provides 1/7 of my family’s dinners, I planted a flowerpot of spider plants from rooted babies, my friend Lise gave me three pea plant starts that she didn’t have space for, Lise and I went for an evening walk that featured poking around a few curbside “free boxes” which netted me a set of four shop towels, (and then received an overnight soak in off-brand oxyclean) and my husband and I watched a DVD we already owned of Napoleon Dynamite.

I didn’t buy a Lear Jet.

I wandered over to the Vancouver, Washington Goodwills last weekend and I scored my favorite thrift find ever — a Native American arrowhead collection! For just $12.99 apiece! (Click HERE for additional photos.) Approximately 200 in total, both beautiful and fascinating.

I took three (maybe four?) anthropology classes in college, including “Peoples of The Pacific Northwest,” so I already possessed a small amount of knowledge on “projectile points,” but am now embarking on additional research. Of course I have zero information about where these specific points were found, but so much history can be gleaned from the type of stone, plus the shape, size and notch locations.

Value is hard to determine, but it looks like I could get between four and five hundred dollars apiece for this each framed piece on eBay. However, I’m going to hold onto them for awhile while I indulge in some further research.

You really never know what you’ll find on a Goodwill shelf!

I was on my way to the grocery store when a “spoon carved” antique dresser caught my eye. Set out on someone’s parking strip, it looked too nice to be a freebie. I was about to knock on their door when their next door neighbor came out from her house. I asked if the dresser was really free, and she confirmed that it was.

I’ve since wiped it down, checked and double checked it for bedbugs, covered the lead painted drawer interiors with contact paper, (leftover from my son’s third grade Halloween costume!) and will have my husband cut a couple pieces of wood to replace the missing drawer guides.

And yes, I’ll be selling it to boost our paltry emergency fund, which has been neglected over the past six years that my husband and I have been putting our kids through college.

I pulled out my vintage 1950s Henry Huggins books for a reread after learning about the passing of 104-year-old Beverly Cleary. I grew up a few blocks away from Klickitat Street and loved her books. Beezus and Ramona’s schools were my schools, Henry Huggin’s paper route was for the newspaper where my mom worked and Ellen Tebbit’s dance classes were at the studio where I took my ballet classes. Heck, even my old middle school is now named after the beloved novelist!

For those who grew up on Cleary’s books, I highly recommend that you read her two memoirs, which are frank and amazing. Not sugar coated and worth your time.

• A Girl From Yamhill

• My Own Two Feet

My husband and I continue to enjoy mystery shows through my sister’s BritBox subscription, (specifically Shetland, Traces and The Bay) I gave away a number of items through my Buy Nothing group, I picked up two free bags of flexible styrofoam sheets from a local business who gets them in their shipments, I packaged with free second-hand supplies for my eBay shipments, my son and I started listening to the Dune audiobook through the free Libby app and I drove with my son through McDonald’s for free McNuggets after our basketball team scored over 100 points.

I didn’t buy a Lear Jet.

My son and I hit one of my favorite Goodwills on N.E. Broadway and hit pay dirt, as someone had just donated:

• An entire set of stainless steel Calphalon pots and pans.
• A Filson waxed twill briefcase, which normally retails for $325!

I hadn’t been aware of the Filson brand, but the quality of the bag stood out with a capital “Q.” Gorgeous leather accents, solid brass hardware and I knew there’s was no way it came from Target. I pulled up my eBay app to check “Completed Items” and knew to throw that bad boy into my cart.

I listed everything on eBay and began making sales in under 24 hours. As you can see, my $12.99 bag was a worthy gamble.

My kids had been asking for meatloaf, which can be a frugal meal, unless yours needs to be gluten free. Luckily I had a loaf of bakery outlet gluten-free blueberry bread languishing in the freezer. Perhaps not the most obvious choice, but I picked out the blueberries and counted on there being enough strong flavors to hide the “notes of blueberry.”

I love, love, love when I’m able to incorporate bits and bobs of fridge/freezer contents into a recipe, and meatloaf is the perfect opportunity to flex this muscle. Leftover “taco Tuesday” hot sauces, fast food packets and the last of some spicy pickled veggies all found their way into the meatloaves, (yes, plural — meatloaf is all about the leftovers!) which served well to hide any lingering blueberry flavor.

My aloe vera plant fell off its perch on the mantle, but I took it as an opportunity to split the plant into two pots. This plant was a curb find from at least ten years ago and it was high time that I dealt with it crowing the pot. I guess I have a cat to thank?

People continue to put books into my Little Free Library, I was gifted a scrappy Pendleton wool blanket from my Buy Nothing group, I enjoyed a couple of front porch visits with friends, I thrifted a case for my iPhone 6 and I’ve held off from buying anything beyond perishables as my fridge and pantry are overly full of miscellaneous stuff.

I didn’t buy a Lear Jet.