Today I am . . .
- Making pumpkin scones, as I wanted to bake something and the recipe doesn’t call for any eggs. (We’re all out.) I enjoy that I’m using the pumpkin puree from our run of the mill Halloween jack-o-lanterns.
- Enjoying the warm Portland weather that allows me to keep the furnace off. I love how quiet the house is without the hum of the furnace.
- Making a plan to sell my childhood coin collection at a local coin shop. Nothing is worth enough to piece it out on eBay, and I really have zero interest in holding onto it forever.
- Totally grooving on my husband working on a basement plumbing project that’s been sitting dormant for at least a year. (DIY is certainly budget friendly, just not part of any zippy timeline.)
- Going to my son’s soccer game in the late afternoon and giving two scrappy blankets to another parent who will use them for her dogs.
- Returning my Redbox movie from yesterday. It’s no bargain to use a free code if it’s not returned on time.
- Going to sort through and organize all of our sheets. I did the KonMari decluttering method for my clothing, (keep only what “sparks joy”) but my closet shelves hold too many sheets and ruin the tidy effect. (We have no linen closet, so our sheets and towels are stored in odd places throughout the house.
- Listening to a library digital audiobook of The Hoarder in You by Dr Robin Zasio. (By the way, I am not a hoarder, but I find it all fascinating and certainly inspiring to keep my house in order.)
- Plan on making The Frugal Girl’s fish cakes for tonight’s dinner. I have some frozen white fish fillets were were less than ideal when cooked plain, but should be just fine when mixed up for fish cakes.
- Probably going to watch a couple episodes of Gilmore Girls on Netflix with my older son. (He says he hates the show, but he gets mad if I watch an episode without him or not pause it when he runs to the bathroom.)
- And not much else. A typical day here at Casa Wolk-Stanley.
Now your turn. What non-consumer-y things are you doing today?
Katy Wolk-Stanley
“Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without.”
{ 22 comments… read them below or add one }
(1) Making red lentil soup (see my comment on yesterday’s FFT post).
(2) Inviting BF neighbors over to share soup. Neighbors are bringing leftover zucchini pie to round out the meal.
(3) Thoroughly enjoying yet another snow day: Finished running errands with DH in the a.m. before the snow started up again, and am giving my brain the rest of the day off. Much needed.
(4) Reviewed all bank accounts online with DH before shutting down my brain for the day. Rejoicing in knowledge that we have a bunch more $$ than I thought we did.
(5) Planning to keep doing exactly what we’ve been doing, to maintain this happy state of affairs!
Today I did mostly nothing and it was so relaxing. It’s 5:19 p.m. and I’m still in my PJs. I did do a load of dishes and I read a WHOLE book in one sitting. Meanwhile, my hubby worked on the exterior of our house all afternoon and my daughter went to a free introductory class about 3-D modeling and digital animation where she also received a free lunch, free T-shirt and free pen. I ate leftovers for lunch. It was in the 70s today so we turned off the heat and I put all my pineapple plants, dwarf banana tree and herbs back outside. The freeze we had during 2 nights this week did damage my tomato plants (despite the double layer of sheets I had thrown on them) and my red canna plant. My baby hibiscus survived just fine though and so did my other plants.
By the way, Redbox started their 10 Days of Savings campaign. Text DEALS to 727-272, once a day through 3/2 to receive special discounts. I got a R1 G1F code today, good through 3/2. I’ve read on Slickdeals that if you use those R1G1F code to get just 1 DVD, it’ll be free but I’ve never tried it.
Oops, forgot to check the box to get the other comments via email 🙂
We’re still working on our Halloween pumpkin puree as well! My husband does scones with soy milk, which are divine!
I invited a bunch of ladies over for a craft night…but the snow kind of botched the plans – so one lady is coming over and I’ve got dinner in the oven and she has dessert.
I have enough food to live off my freezer for awhile and I never get around to it…so this week I will be eating lots of left over spaghetti and italian bread, soon-to-be-old trader joe’s meals with rice, yadda yadda.
I do that sometimes, too. I try to use what’s in my freezer, but sometimes it just gets out of hand. So then I pick a couple of weeks and I make an effort to use up what I have, especially if it had been there for a while. It drives me crazy to waste not only the cost of the food but also the time I put into prepping and cooking just because I forget it in the freezer.
I mended my dog’s saddlebags. He’s very powerful and carrying heavy things on his back makes him focus on his walks, which means my arms don’t get torn off my body. Yay!
Selected fabric from my stash to sew my infant daughter an Easter dress. I’ve been sickened at how often I think about shopping, and so I gave up window shopping for Lent. (I’m not Catholic, but it seemed like a good exercise in gratitude to use what I have, first.)
Ate leftovers for lunch and made bacon and onion quesadillas for supper with materials from the fridge. No spending money on food today! We had just enough cheese to make enough quesadillas to share with my husband’s friend who dropped by.
Bonus day today!! I went to the local boat show with my teenage son today. First we went to a free pre show seminar about ice fishing. I wasn’t interested in it, but my son is so I sat through it with him. At the end they gave out door prizes, and because I went too, my son got to pick out two things off the table and ended up with two tip up rods(it was a small seminar, everyone won something from the table). We got free entrance to the show as my sister was given extra free passes. My son visited a local fishing pro friend who filled his goodie bag with free tackle. I was chatting either a local guy who runs a fishing tour company and total him that my aspires to to what he does…he then on the spot offered my son to go out on location scouting trip in the spring….for free!!!! He had just finished telling us that his tours run about 300.00 for a couple of hours!
On the way out, we went to the show office and asked for bracelets, just in case we wanted to come back tomorrow….most shows here do that, but usually don’t advertise it. And…. my husband dropped us off on his way somewhere else, we saved on parking. Score!!!
Picked up The Rosie Effect and Spool of Blue Thread at the library and used gift money at a local bakery to buy little luxuries….2 cupcakes and a S’Mores Bar. Made whole wheat tortillas from scratch and filled them with sauteed sweet potato chunks, onions, corn and shredded cheese topped with my special lime spiced mayo. Delish!
I like to listen to the e-book of the hoarder in you as I declutter. I agree it’s very inspiring for a non-hoarder.
Ha! Just made pumpkin bread with our Halloween pumpkin puree. Only one more portion left…I am determined to do something more interesting with that one!
* going back home from our 24 hours vacation without the kids (2 hours drive)
* preparing for the week ahead (laundry, kids bags, etc….)
* reading on colleges and universities programs and trying to decide if I am going back to school in September (which brings a looooooot of anxiety, because it would i imply so many changes!!).
* visiting a friend on our way back home
Have a great frugal day!
Yesterday—haha–little late to the party.
I returned an exhaust fan bought for my bathroom. It wasn’t the right size. Instead my husband took down the old one—-OLD. He cleaned it with air pressure. He greased some part on it. I don’t know what. He replaced the rubber bushings under the brackets. Then he put it back up. It works perfectly. It used to sound like it was about to tear itself out of the ceiling. Hopefully the repair work he did will give us more time with the old fan. Sidenote about the replacement fan compared to the old one: The old one is almost all metal and the new ones almost all plastic.
While he worked on that I primed the walls in my living and dining room. The primer I used I found a few years ago at he curb in my neighborhood. The neighbor was outside and I asked her to make sure it was trash. I also got the paint that I have already used to paint my hallway! And some more paint colors. The primer was Bullseye brand and about 3 gallons in a 5 gallon bucket.
I did laundry–hanging to dry in between priming.
I boiled a dozen eggs that my husband will take for his lunches/snacks this week. A busy day today so I did that yesterday.
That’s about it!
I remember Dr Zasio from the TV series Hoarders, which I watched many episodes of last year. I’m not a serious hoarder, but do have a bit too much stuff. I found it interesting to watch this series as it helped me to understand why I accumulated stuff and helped me change some of my habits in this respect.
The Marie Kondo book seems to be very popular on blogs at the moment. I’ve read about it on various different ones recently. I should take a look as I’m trying to keep things simple this year and get rid of lots of clutter.
Because of you all here, I am going to:
1)bake off the last three decorator mini pumpkins and make pumpkin muffins! I have been meaning to, but they are not rotting, so I have not bothered.
2)Then I am going to bake the seeds from those and the seeds in the freezer for snacks!
3)I am getting an oil change today, using a coupon ($188 total
4)I used a half going bad tomato in my breakfast sandwich this morning
5) I am sharing my wifi with a friend’s daughter so she can get her homework done while theirs is not working and she is providing lunch!
Today, I:
1) Made a breakfast hash to use up the random leftovers in my fridge (italian sausage, kale, onion, red potatoes);
2) Discovered longreads.com and loaded my kindle with a ton of thought-provoking and FREE articles.
3) Haven’t left my apartment since I got home from work on Friday — so bonus because no spending! and I’ve gotten a ton of sleep and seem to have finally vanquished the pesky winter cough that has been lingering for a few weeks.
1. We spent a good part of the morning clearing snow. Since we bought a snow blower last year we helped at the houses of five neighbors. They appreciated it and it was good to have a chance to visit with them. It has been so cold that we have not seen much of each other this winter.
2. I will make pumpkin pancakes for supper. My husband loves having them in the freezer for breakfasts during the week so I’ll make a triple batch.
3. Meals this weekend have been leftovers from the refrigerator. I need to cut the rest of the meat off a chicken carcass, freeze it for future use, and boil the carcass for soup.
4. I took a walk this afternoon. It was sunny and warm( above freezing). That kind of weather is so good for my psyche.
~Made Amish chocolate chip pumpkin bread from a can of pumpkin from my pantry. The squirrels ate my pumpkins before I could do anything with them.
~Cooked brown rice and white rice for the week in my yardsale rice cooker.
~Happy that I got 3 bags of donations dropped at Salvation Army yesterday before the snowstorm.
~Even happier that the temp went up to 41° so some of the snow could melt before we go back to 7° tomorrow.
~Ordered a replacement light lens cover for my range hood. It has been cracking and chipping for awhile and when I took it down to wash it and a chunk chipped off I decided enough was enough. Went on manufacturer’s website and found that it would cost $12 plus change with $6.99 of that shipping. Decided to look further and found 1 from 3rd party seller on Amazon for $4.50 shipped. Score! Paid with a Amazon GC I received for giving a talk to a church group so no OOP!
~Purged old coupons since it’s the end of the month.
I did not realize it was National Eat Pumpkin Day. Please give me an advance heads up next time 🙂
I am really just chiming in to say that Kristen’ s fishcake recipe is wonderful. We had bought a bunch of frozen hake at Costco last year for a great price and really didn’t like it at all as a baked or poached entree, but it is great in the fishcake recipe!
Today I am:
1. invited out to lunch with a friend. It will be good to see her plus a free lunch.
2. taking inventory of freezer dinners so I won’t have to cook
3. getting free exercise by walking the dog
4. hitting the dollar store for spices
5. resting from yesterday. I saw so many people I knew and was a social butterfly all day.
1. Fasting for lunch, (just one day a week), which is a tiny bit frugal. I eat leftovers every day, so my lunches really don’t cost much at all.
2. Found 3 pennies on the sidewalk in town yesterday. I pick up pennies, whereas so many people step over them. They add up, and my bank rolls for free.
3. Scored a free lunch yesterday from my very generous daughter, since it’s my birthday this week, and it provided leftovers to take home.
4. Hoping to grow “Seminole pumpkins” successfully this year — they are a native squash that handles the Florida heat, humidity and insects. If we plant them early enough this time — we planted too late last time and they froze– we’ll be eating pumpkin with the rest of you next year. In the meantime, we are still eating creamed corn from the freezer, from a huge sack of corn given to us by a friend in the summer.
5. Tonight we’ll have a little pasta with a lot of sauce incorporating leftover tomato sauce and leftover ground meat that needed to be cooked. My husband shouldn’t eat much pasta but loves the sauce, so it’s much cheaper for me to make my own sauce, since he’ll eat a ton of it.
We also have no linen closet. I have decided to turn the closet in our third bedroom / guest room / storage room in a linen closet. But first I have to clear out the 5o tons of junk in front of it! In the meantime, the linens are stacked on a chair, and cats are frequently self-stacked on the linens, resulting in unused linens getting rewashed frequently. Such a mess, unless you are a cat.