The Non-Consumer Advocate

1. I sold a large macrame wall hanging through Facebook Marketplace that I’d picked up at Goodwill. I immediately put the money into the credit union, as there’s reason to have cash sitting around the house tempting me with its anonymous allure. (I like the trackability of using my debit card, as I can follow exactly where my money is going.)

2. I picked up a groovy vintage suitcase with an eye to upcycing it into a side table. I already have a big bag of vintage brass-tipped tapered legs, and had been looking for the perfect suitcase. The inside features a strong mildew odor, so I cleaned it with antimicrobial wipes and then treated it to a generous spritzing of vodka. I’ve read that vodka is an excellent solution for musty suitcases, so I figured I’d give it a try. (We already had a leftover bottle in the freezer.) I’ll do a full post in the future and let you know if this trick actually removed any stank. I’ve also read that leaving a container of cat litter in a closed suitcase helps to absorb the smell, so I’ll try that as my next step. (I assume they mean fresh new cat litter. 😂🐈)

3. I gave away five bags of unopened Easter candy to someone in my Buy Nothing Group. This woman is always happy to receive candy as she’s a middle school counselor and makes it available to her students who are having crappy days. Which, as I recall, are most days in middle school. (I’d previously given her our unopened Halloween candy.)

   I then accepted a pair of iPhone earbuds from someone else in my Buy Nothing Group, which was perfect timing, as my functional earbuds seem to have been lifted by a certain sticky fingered college student. I like to listen to podcasts while puttering around the house, yet have $0.00 budgeted for anything unnecessary at the moment as we just paid for spring tuition, April rents plus looming taxes. When it rains it . . . holy hell, is that a monsoon?!

4. My sister and her kids have been visiting from New York this week, which in the past has been an expensive endeavor as it entails frequent restaurant meals and bonus touristy activities. However, we’re both budget motivated at the moment, so our excursions have been simple and in the black. Eating meals at home might seem dull, but we’re all in it for the company we keep, not the strangers we impress.

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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Yesterday was the sad last day of my kids’ spring break, so we drove our youngest back to his apartment and bought a Greyhound ticket for our oldest. Thinking we were being clever, we bought the ticket to originate from Eugene instead of Portland as it saved us $42. However, it turned out that the bus had broken down outside Eugene and the timeline was vague at best and featured the line “we’re hoping to get a mechanic up there within two to three hours.” We bit the bullet and offered to drive the extra three hours to get our oldest all the way back as there was the pressing issue of Monday morning classes. Unfortunately, I had convinced my sister and her son to accompany us on our short road trip with promises of fun thrifting/hanging out on campus.

So yes, my sister got to luxuriate in an extra six (six!) hours of driving in addition to the four she signed on for. (My nephew hung out in Eugene with his cousin, and we swung by to pick him up around midnight.) And though the town of Ashland is nestled beneath a beautiful mountain and the main street is filled with adorable shops and delicious restaurants, it was too late to enjoy the amenities and definitely too dark to appreciate any scenery.

How does this remotely fit within the category of a “frugal thing?”

1. I was able to get a refund on the bus ticket, as well as the $70 I spent on a bus ticket last week after my college senior decided to accept a late minute ride. Even though I’d been told that a refund wasn’t possible.

2. We had approximately ten minutes in a Eugene thrift shop before I received the phone call about the broken down Greyhound bus. And in that ten minutes I scored a groovy vintage globe for the perfectly acceptable price of $4.99.

3. We ate a late heavy lunch and didn’t have an appetite for dinner. We did run into the grocery store for snacks, but kept them simple with fruit, carrots, beef jerky and Chex mix. However, we all seem to have what’s now known as a “Chex mix hangover.” So! Much! Salt!

4. Yesterday was Easter, and although I’m Jewish, the Easter bunny still visits my house. I was able to buy all the treats for my kids and their cousins using Goodwill gift cards I had in my wallet. (Before you get too grossed out, our Goodwills have a big ol’ shelf of brand new candy and treats at the register as impulse items.)

5. We didn’t charter a Lear Jet, although I was sorely tempted.

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. My sister and her kids are in town for their spring break, which overlaps a couple of days with my kids’ spring break. This means we’re a large group of people which can get expensive pretty quickly. However, our mother was generous and treated everyone to lunch yesterday, so I offered to host everyone for last night’s dinner. At first I drew a blank for the meal, but then I realized that the black beans which had been simmering in the crock pot all day could transform into the basis for a “burrito bar” meal. (This was an especially good idea since we have a couple of vegetarians in the family.) I was tempted to run to the grocery store to fill in some holes, but instead I made do with the groceries I already had on hand.

   I cooked up a mess of carmelized onions and then sautéed three-for-a-dollar red peppers I’d previously grabbed from a clearance bin. I grated cheese, chopped lettuce, sliced avocado, threw rice into the rice cooker, assembled tortillas from the fridge and freezer and gathered various salsas and hot sauces from the fridge. In the end we fed eleven people quite nicely and there were no complaints from the guests or my wallet.

2. We made our final double payment for our kids’ university tuition. Our oldest graduates at the end of spring term, (although there are two classes to be taken this summer through Portland Community College.) Our youngest is finishing his sophomore year, so we’ll have two more years of tuition and living expenses for him, but after the two years of both kids in college at the same time, this should be a financial breeze! It’s been a lean few years coupled with maximizing all income opportunities, and I look forward to seeing fatter bank accounts, as well as starting back up on paying extra towards our mortgage.

3. I loaded everyone into the minivan for a Goodwill trip and bought nothing more than a package of underwear for myself. I do have underwear as an exception on my buy-nothing-new list, but thrift stores often have new underwear whose only flaw is that they’re in messed up packaging or are missing a pair. And since this four-pack was $3.99 instead of the $19.99 they’d normally cost, this was a no brainer. Buying from thrift shops not only stems the tide of insane over manufacture of consumer goods, but it keeps my family on budget.

   “Debt free living in thrift store underwear” might have to become the new tagline for The Non-Consumer Advocate!

4. I turned down the brightness on my cell phone, my husband and I finished watching the first season of Star Trek: Discovery using a 30-day free trial of CBS All Access, (so good I might need to rewatch the series to catch the nuance I missed the first time around!) I renewed all my library books, I signed up for another month of hospital shifts, I’m arranging the sale of a groovy macrame wall hanging that I picked up at Goodwill, I had water at lunch even though my mom was paying, I cut flowers from the garden to cheer up the home, I filled out a short application for an hour long panel that would pay $125 and I brought home a pretty chair that a neighbor had put out for free.

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    

“Debt free living in thrift store underwear.”

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

{ 70 comments }

1. My husband, son and I caught an afternoon showing of Early Man, which is the most recent stop motion animation film from Nick Park of Wallace and Gromit fame. The admission price was $4 apiece, although the three of us got in for $8 as I had a 2-for-1 coupon. My families loves Wallace and Gromit, and will see anything from Aardman studios. Of course, we always wait for movies to come to the second run theaters.

2. My cousins’ grandmother is turning 98 tomorrow, so I popped a birthday card into the mail for her. She’s always been inclusive with her kindness to my sister and I, and there is nothing more frugal than the cost of a first class stamp from Oregon to Nebraska. Especially since I have a stash of greeting cards that I’ve scooped up from the pay-by-the-pound Goodwill Outlet. Although I do have to admit that I was grossed out to have automatically licked the envelope before remembering that it had come from a Goodwill bin. Blegh!

3. I knew I’d be tempted to take the family out for dinner after our movie excursion, so I marinated some chicken breasts for an easy dinner. I served it over the last of some salad mix I’d picked up at the Grocery Outlet and drizzled it with some of my famous Tea Towel Salad Dressing.©

4. I put together a couple of new Craigslist postings, I’m wearing a cute pair of hand-me-down jeans from my older sister and I lived yet another day with Formica countertops in my kitchen.

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.”

{ 123 comments }

1. My son and I spent the afternoon hitting up a couple of nearby Goodwills. He bought a green sweater and pink dress shirt as he’s been wanting to put together a “Ned Flanders outfit,” and I bought a number of miscellaneous items including:

   – A pair of brand new Smart Wool work socks for my husband.

   – A set of brand new Tommy Hilfiger flannel sheets for my soon to visit nephew. (We’re low on extra twin sheets, since both my kids took sets to school with them.)

   – A pair of Ferragamo pumps to sell.

   – A Thule bike rack, which I’ll sell at an local store.

2. I told my son “we have food at home” when he wanted to drive through Popeye’s (his favorite) while we were out and about. My id desperately wanted to splurge on a treat for him, but my ego was hyperaware of the looming April 1st double tuition deadline. Instead we came home and I sautéed a mess of onions, peppers and mushrooms to create a huge omelette for my husband and son to share. And since the peppers and mushrooms were from the Grocery Outlet clearance shelf, it was a truly frugal meal which ended up winning rave reviews.

3. The Portland Timbers soccer team played yet another away game, as their stadium is being upgraded. I decided to make the at home game is little more fun than usual, so I put together a snacky feast, which I normally only do for the Super Bowl. My plan had been somewhat elaborate, but I slept in and didn’t have time to grocery shop. Instead I served cut apples, carrots, hummus and sausage bits on toothpicks. (Everything’s more fun on a toothpick!) I then set out bowls of dipping sauces for the sausage pieces, which was a huge hit. My husband’s friend was a last minute addition to the fun and there was plenty of food to go around. And the best part was that the sausages were 99¢ per six-pack from (you guessed it) the Grocery Outlet!

4. My husband signed up for a free 30-day trial of CBS All Access so we can binge watch Star Trek Discovery while he’s on medical leave, I’ve been reading a library copy of Goodbye, Things: The New Japanese Minimalism, I’m wearing a 100% thrifted outfit today, (including socks and underwear!) I found two pennies on the ground as well as a cute purple pony tail holder, I saved the plastic bags that the aforementioned clearance shelf veggies came in for my friend to use as dog poop bags and I potted up some spider plant babies which I’d pinched off a plant at my father’s house.

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.”

{ 83 comments }

1. My husband really needed a haircut, yet wanted something beyond the normal buzz cut that I’m able to provide. He’d snuck out to a dude salon a month or so ago which ended up being both expensive and a dreadful haircut. I called up the Free Haircuts Portland, Oregon people who do the continuing education for Supercuts and they were able to book him an appointment that afternoon. My husband was pretty nervous about being the guinea pig in yet another of my frugal schemes, but I assured him that I’d been there before and had received a great cut. In the end my husband received an amazing haircut, which we both agree is the best cut he’s had in years, possibly decades.

   This may seem like a Portland specific frugal tip, but Supercuts is a national chain, which means that your area should have a similar opportunity for free haircuts. Just call your local Supercuts and ask!

2. We stopped at Goodwill on the way home from Supercuts-ish where we both scored a single great item. For my husband it was a fancy fold-up soccer goal for $40 that normally costs $150, and for me it was a $7.99 vintage wrought iron plant stand that perfectly fits a cute McCoy planter that I already own.

3. I’m taking the next two weeks off from work at the hospital so I can enjoy my kids being home from college and then my sister visiting with her kids from New York. I won’t receive any pay, but March was an extra paycheck month, so it’ll kind of even out. The next double tuition payment (approximately $8400) is due April 1st, so I’m keeping a tight eye on our bank balances. (Who am I kidding, I always keep a tight eye on our bank accounts!) I know that there will be a lot of eating out and entertainment expenses during my sister’s visit, so I’m locking down the budget in anticipation of these vague extra expenditures. How does this play out in real life? Tonight’s dinner will be a “burrito bar” which means that I threw approximately 30¢ of Dollar Tree pinto beans into the crockpot and last night’s dinner was homemade pizza with carmelized onions and sketchy freezer pepperoni as toppings.

4. I sold my curbside dining chairs that I’d hauled home and scrubbed to perfection, I sold a huge lot of brand new thrifted shoelaces on eBay that I think I’d had listed since last summer, I brought my own food to work even though the meals were a bit hodgepodge and I’m going to be able to put out free extra yard debris (I’ve been pruning our hydrangeas) while my neighbors are on vacation for spring break.

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.”

{ 91 comments }

1. I cut my son’s lifeguarding tank tops into rags. Although my son worked for seven years as a lifeguard, he’ll be moving on and these tanks would otherwise take up space in his already cluttered room. It’s against regulation to wear them outside of work, and were so faded and sweat bleached that I doubt Goodwill would even put them out on the floor. I stopped buying paper towels a very long time ago, so these will function to clean up spills, shine windows and for other times that I would have mindlessly torn off a square from a roll of paper towels. I do my best to minimize how much garbage my family produces. (As an aside, my son could have taken new shirts and swim trunks each year, but instead he chose to continue using the same ones he’d been assigned the first year he was hired.)

2. I listed a “Get Well Soon” helium balloon on my local Buy Nothing group. (My husband received the balloon from one of his employees last week before his hip surgery.) It was still tight and floaty, so I was able to find someone whose friend just broke a leg. Now this otherwise useless item can go cheer up a new person and I won’t have to throw it into the garbage.

3. My husband and I designated yesterday as a “TCB” day. (Taking care of bidness!) I wrote out a tremendous list of finicky chores that needed my attention and my husband went through piles and piles (and piles) of papers that needed to either be shredded or filed. Not only did he locate some continuing education paperwork that will save me having to repeat two different classes, but he come across a notice from the DMV notifying us that we need to take one of our cars through DEQ and reregister the vehicle. (We are lucky that neither of us got pulled over for this infraction.) I’ll drive the car through DEQ this morning and am looking forward to presenting my paperwork at the hospital tomorrow.

   What got crossed off my to-do list?

   – I washed the curtains in our spare bedroom and then rehung them. (The cats like to sit behind these curtains, which results in them being caked with nasty cat hair.)

   – I listed two items on Facebook Marketplace.

   – I transplanted and tidied up all the straggly flowerpots on the front porch.

   – I pruned back a volunteer butterfly bush in the front yard.

   – I pruned our hydrangeas in the back yard. (Although this chore will require many more hours to complete.)

   – I scooped and cleaned up around our litter boxes.

   – I walked to the grocery store.

   – I made dinner with enough leftovers for this week’s work lunches.

   – I wrote out and mailed a check for a miscellaneous fee to my son’s landlord.

   – I took three empty Costco cat food bags and separated the layers so they could be recycled.

   – I replaced the battery in one clock and switched another to daylight savings time.

   – I did two loads of laundry and even put everything away.

   – I glued the small ceramic “hot” button back onto the bathroom faucet handle. It was so tiny, and I was worried that it would get lost before I had a chance to complete this task.

   – I did all my hand washing and hung everything to dry.

   – I had a couple of uncompleted tasks on my to-do list, but my energy petered out by the evening. But that okay, as I can clean out the fridge and organize my eBay inventory later on today.

4. I accepted a free frosted cookie at the grocery store which I then presented to my paper-sorting husband, I listened to a free Levar Burtion Reads podcast while working in the garden, I connected one co-worker who was giving away a number “3” cake pan with another co-worker whose son was turning three and I helped myself to some free packaging supplies while visiting my husband’s workplace.

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.”

{ 119 comments }

1. My 52-year-old husband planned a snowboarding day trip up to Mt. Hood with his work buddies. Skiing and snowboarding are expensive hobbies, but my guy kept it on budget. He pre-purchased a discount lift ticket, packed sandwiches and water from home, made do with some scrappy 99¢ thrifted snow pants, borrowed goggles, carpooled with someone who owns a 4-wheel drive and most importantly he avoided a visit to an emergency room, which I say is the biggest savings of all!

2. I spent a few hours thrifting at the Goodwill Outlet with my friend Sarah, who if possible likes Goodwill more than I do.

   I bought:

   – A lambswool sweater and souvenir British tea towel for my father.
   – A lovely Metropolitan Museum of Art silk necktie for my husband.
   – A kilim pillow sham.
   – A groovy Zenith “Space Command” remote control.
   – A pair of leggings for myself.
   – A pair of sunglasses.
   – A pair of jeans for my mother.
   – An antique brownie camera.
   – Two brand new paint pens.
   – A Game of Thrones T-shirt to sell to the nearby Buffalo Exchange consignment shop. (I bring stuff in throughout the year so I’ll have gift cards for my kids come December.)

3. I scored a 99¢ bag of tangerines from The Grocery Outlet, and my husband and I actually ate every single one of them for a zero waste win! (My experience is that tangerines can quickly get dried out and unpalatable.)

4. I watched a couple episodes of Orphan Black from a library DVD, I cooked up a slow cooker batch of black beans for burritos, I filled the Prius up with cheap Costco gasoline, I walked to the grocery store, I’m wearing a thrifted shirt, sweater, jeans, underwear and socks (sorry, the bra was bought new) and I strolled through a Whole Foods simply to enjoy the samples.

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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