Today I Am . . .
- Gazing at my Pinterest board that is all about painted campaign dressers. So pretty!
- Pleased that rather foul Trader Joe’s peppermint toothpaste works well to polish up the brass hardware on my campaign dresser.
- Wishing that my feet didn’t hurt so much after a 12-hour hospital shift.
- Encouraging a certain jet-lagged boy to get out of bed and transition back to Portland time. Even if that does mean losing out on 4 A.M. chats with friends in Japan.
- Proud of my husband, who just received a promotion at work.
- Happy that my neighbors are pickier than I am with their outdoor planters. (They put out one concrete planter because it was chipped a few months ago, and just put out its match the other night. Needless to say, both planters now reside in my garden. I have plans to fill both with bamboo which will shade the south side of my porch without invading the rest of the yard.)
- Happy to have my son home after his month in Japan. He kicks a soccer ball in the house all the time, talks non-stop and I love every noisy and disruptive bit of him!
- Pleased to share my Five Frugal Things blog format with my pal Kristen from The Frugal Girl. It’s a perfect way to share frugal activities that don’t quite warrant their own blog post.
- Annoyed with how many e-mails I need to address. They’re all sitting in my inbox just waiting for me to be in the mood to deal with them. Needless to say, I simply need to get on that irregardless of my mood.
- Off to take laundry off the clothesline that’s been wetting and drying over the past few rainy days.
Now your turn. What frugal things have you been up to?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
{ 15 comments… read them below or add one }
Agree that the Trader Joe’s peppermint toothpaste is rather foul… such a disappointment!!! Somewhat relieved to know I am not alone in that opinion. Perhaps I will repurpose mine as brass polish as well. except I have not brass to polish… maybe send my 3/4 full tube to you??? 😉
Gee, what a generous offer! 😉
Today I am:
1 Hanging out with my 12 yr old grandson…..get one day weekly until he goes back to school Aug 4th…..whatever happened to school starting after Labor Day????
2 Picking blackberries to put in the freezer so we can enjoy yummy cobblers this fall and winter
3 Making pizza from scratch……that way you can load it up anyway you want
4 Looking forward to reading a book I got from the loan library…The Poet of Tolstoy Park…..we visited what was his meager “home” in Fairhope, AL and now want to read all about it….kind of like a more modern Thoreau
5 Trying to think of a way to persuade my elderly mother to not just sit….to get up and move and enjoy her later years instead of veggie out in her recliner. No luck so far
6 Thankful for this awesome and beautiful cooler than usual day! Oops…that is 6….my cup runneth over!
Hi Linda
My mother-in-law was the same way and then she started going to her local senior center. We live in Florida and of course, they’re on every street corner but if you could find one for you mom, she might enjoy it. They have all kinds of activities and she would make some friends. You could always go with her at first just so she’s comfortable. Once my mother-in-law started making friends we had a hard time catching her at home, she had quite a social calendar. Might be worth a try. Good luck.
That sounds like a wonderful idea….I will see if I can work it out….but it is a good drive for me to get her to the closest one would be 34 miles….will try to work it in…..I think she would enjoy a bunch. Thanks much, Dusty!!
Today I am…
Enjoying a nice chat with my husband before he heads off to work for a few hours.
Remaking a single size bottom sheet into a table cloth for our dining table.
Shopping for and hopefully buying thin, clear plastic to cover the new tablecloth so it doesn’t have to be washed after each meal.
Planning a potluck with friends for the 2nd Sunday afternoon of each upcoming month.
Baking bread.
Baking blueberry muffins before the blueberries go fuzzy.
Today I am:
happy that I may have picked up another housecleaning job.
Really enjoying the new skylights that my husband is installing. Our new roof and skylights are the summer project for us.
Really not happy about the black spiders that are coming in around where the new skylights are. Once it’s all sheetrocked, it won’t be a problem, but I may have to sleep with a flyswatter for a while.
Thrilled that there is a fruit stand in the nearest town now. I bought apricots for .99lb and a hermiston watermelon for 2.50 Oh, and walla walla onions for .89lb. Such good fruit for reasonable prices.
Went out for pizza with my husband. Local pub has $1.50 night for cheese pizza. Brought the leftovers home for lunch.
Found 3 movies recommended on facebook at library and used the Museum of Fine Arts pass from the library. The pass covers 2. 3 of us went, we had 2 passes. I shared my pass with the next person in line. Saved $15/person.
Made some money helping a friend weed her gardens (been doing that since spring). Figure that will end soon. I went on a job interview (I am retired) at a local business and I have been offered a few hours a week–figure it could be spending money (or saving money for a trip). I could even ride my bike to this job.
I have been going to line dancing at the Sr. Center. It’s fun. It’s exercise. It’s inexpensive.
I won a gift certificate for a local bakery that I like.
Through our organic CSA this week, we had the choice of an eggplant or 5 lbs. of beans if we picked them ourselves. I took the beans. It was very peaceful out there in the field all by myself picking beans. (At the grocery store, a small container of organic beans was $4.)
Today I went to work, was productive, and then left an hour early.
I finally got my floors vacuumed. Toddler + Cheerios means I really ought to do this daily!
I watched an episode of hoarders with a good friend over a glass of wine. I’m far from a hoarder, but I’m hoping it will be great inspiration to clear some more clutter out of my room!
I’m so thankful that even though my oldest boy is a handful, he is still full of love and happiness and makes my heart melt daily.
I’m jealous of Katy’s new Campaign dresser (btw, I really like the white dresser with wood tone drawers.)
Today I am:
– Picking apricots from a friend’s tree, and am giving her some surplus canning jars in exchange.
– Picking strawberries from our plants to serve for dessert tonight with friends
– Hanging laundry outside
– Opened the windows at 7 am while it was still cooler outside than in.
Today I am
1. Relieved to have a comfortable, safe car in excellent condition for our family. We bought a great car, three years old. Thank you previous owner for paying the new car premium and taking the loss.
2. Repainting the wicker front porch furniture I found on freecycle, if the sun comes out.
3. Washing cloth diapers.
4. Planning to have friends for supper. We could go out, but the babysitter and food tab would run us at least $100. I will splurge on expensive seafood, but still probably come in under $25 for the meal.
5. Redoing my recipe binder to improve its organization. This book is my kitchen Bible and saves me so much money in convenience food and stress over dinner plans. How did I function before it!? Thank you frugal girl for the inspiration.
6. Hopefully finishing the homemade nursing pads I am making for two pregnant friends.
“Annoyed with how many e-mails I need to address. They’re all sitting in my inbox just waiting for me to be in the mood to deal with them. Needless to say, I simply need to get on that irregardless of my mood.”
My most significant achievement this weekend was to go through my email inbox. It’s now down to 35, from 115. There’s still a lot to do, though, as some of the reduction came from moving emails from the inbox to other “to do” folders. Sigh.
I certainly do enjoy your blog. I have spent countless hours going back through all of your posts. I’m still not done! You have given me tons of ideas and I totally love your twisted sense of humor.
I too, share in the same profession, however I’m an ER nurse. Totally opposite world than yours. There have been a few carside deliveries, but totally uncomplicated.
As a non-consumerista, how do you stay sane with all the waste and garbarge that hospitals create? It drives me nuts. I’m sure for you being the no waste zealot that you are, you probably are twitching by the time you leave a 12 hour shift!
Thanks for all the work on the blog and the great ideas. You’re inspiring!
Don’t be so sure that our jobs are that different. You know all those wackos that come into the ER and are also parents? Guess what? They had their kids upstairs with us.
And our floor is pretty good about recycling all the plastic packaging, so it doesn’t bother me the same way it used to.
Thanks for the kind words.
*Happy that I got 5 hours of sleep from working overnight.
*about to start folding clothes that my husband washed this morning.
*writing my blog post for tomorrow
*thinking of creative birthday gift we will give to our daughter this weekend.
*planning to write down all the recipes I collected since last year (a lot of them)