Two Frugal Things
by Katy on February 14, 2018 · 49 comments
1. I threw some Dollar Tree pinto beans into the crockpot in a pointless desperate gesture to balance out having just spent thousands of dollars maintaining our 2005 minivan. I joked to the mechanic that I was going through the five stages of grief:
-
Denial – It couldn’t possibly cost that much, this must be some kind of joke!
-
Anger – Nooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!
-
Bargaining – Hey there, friendly mechanic. Would you like to trade good and services for some mushy pinto beans?
-
Depression – Will this nightmare never end? I think I need a nap.
-
Acceptance – I guess I’m just going to have to eat a lot of dried beans. Ooh look . . . my minivan suddenly drives much smoother now.
You know. Normal stuff that’s part of regularly scheduled automobile maintenance.
2. I ate pinto beans for dinner.
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.”
Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Twitter.
Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Instagram.
Click HERE to join The Non-Consumer Advocate Facebook group.
Click HERE to follow The Non-Consumer Advocate on Pinterest.
Like this post? Then please share it with your friends!
Like this:
Like Loading...
{ 49 comments… read them below or add one }
We bought a steak at the grocery store today. It was part of a 2 pack. We froze one for a later meal. Then I cut the other one in half for our Valentine’s dinner. We enjoyed our steak dinner every bit as much and probably more than we would have if we had gone out and spent a huge sum in a restaurant. We hardly ever buy steak so it was a treat. Happy frugal Valentine’s Day.
Every time I’ve eaten a steak out I’ve been disappointed. Best to cook them at home I think
I have had many a wonderful steak in a restaurant. Their secret, SALT. Most cooks don’t salt their meat enough. It makes a YUGE difference in the taste. Try it and everyone will swear eating at your house is better than top restaurants.
YOu ain’t kidding Alexandra. When I took Cooking 101 at a cooking school (actual school, not Williams Sonoma classes) I got many 24s but nary a 25 (perfect grade) because I never salted as much as my restaurant-trained instructor thought I should.
It probably helps that my husband is a trained chef!
I like a steak to be cooked medium rare. I find that most restaurants either do them rare or over cook them. Also we try to buy a large vacuum sealed piece of meat and then my husband will cut the steaks himself. We get much better quality meat that way.
This was my mistake with our Valentine’s homecooked steak, I forgot that it should have been generously salted! Now I remember for next time.
Took the 7 year old car for an oil change to our trusted mechanic that kept our previous car going for 22 years. They said the tires were shot – short version of the story is I HATED driving in the rain with this car (it would spinout on hills), and I would not drive on ice/snow, but the mechanic fixed a known strut issue and put on better tires and $900 later the car drives better than it did when it was new.
We’re eating beans lately too. Cooked navy beans and turned them into baked beans in the crockpot. Loosely based that on Pioneer Woman’s recipe. Had them for dinner last night and lunch today. Still have some in the fridge.
Made pancakes and eggs for dinner tonight.
Friend brought over some free grapefruit from her father’s tree. I eat one everyday so it saves me from having to run out to the orchards again soon.
Combined a trip to the post office with taking the kids to AWANA tonight. That was our only gas expenditure.
Watching the last bit of stuff I’m interested in on Netflix during my free trial. Have 7 days left before I need to cancel.
Ugh, sorry, feeling the pain with you. But on the bright side, it is cheaper (?) than a new car and it will now get you where you need to go. It is better than walking or riding a bike everywhere. 🙂
Pinto beans have saved me $100 s of dollars.
I forgot to ask you–what did you list that Cast Iron pan for? I bought a couple at my pay-by-the-pound outlet last weekend and I am procrastinating scrubbing/seasoning/listing. Actually, I scrubbed with my Smiley sponge and that didn’t go well at all. Got some soapless steel wool today and will tackle again. At the 99 cents a pound am hoping I didn’t make a mistake. One is French and one is Emeril so think I can make money back on Craig’s. Wondering if you are using Craig’s or eBay or Fbook marketplace?
The best refurbish I have found for cast iron is to put it in the fireplace to burn off old grease, then scrub and oil.
High heat is definitely the way to go.
If you have a self-cleaning oven, then use that. When your oven needs cleaning, load it with as many cruddy cast iron pans as will fit. The crud will bake off into a fine dust that you can pick up with a damp cloth.
Ideally do this overnight when power may be cheaper and during the winter when the residual heat will benefit your house.
Thank you, William. I waiting until after 8pm and am cleaning my oven and 3 of the cast iron pans right now! They will be ready to season and sell by the weekend. One of the cast iron pans has a wooden handle so I guess I will be scrubbing that one.
1. I was early for an appointment in the fancy part of town. I browsed a very expensive gift and homewares shop, and discovered a total lack of interest in any of their gifts and homewares. I window shopped the boutiques but as I am on a clothing spending freeze, they held little interest.
2. I took spaghetti and homemade nut free pesto for lunch. After I was back in my office I heard multiple exclamations from colleagues about the delicious smell. Pesto is so cheap to make if you have an abundance of fresh herbs. Haha unbeknownst to them I overheated it and all the spaghetti stuck together so I was really eating a giant pesto cookie. Very undignified.
Pesto cookie sounds like it is worth making on purpose!
1. I was getting ready to cancel a credit card that had a LOT of points built up. None of them could be used for airlines that serve Alaska; ditto for the hotels, in case we went to Anchorage. I was about to use the points to buy gift cards when I read the fine print that said I could trade the points in for cash. My points translated into, wait for it: $982.12! It was sent to my bank account within two working days. I resisted the urge to splurge on lobster…and put it right into my emergency fund.
2. Found a no-knead ciabatta bread recipe that is wonderful. Making it at home saves me about $6.00 over what it costs at the grocery store, and the effort to make it is minimal—about 10 minutes plus the baking.
3. Offered to take home a bag of frozen Asian vegetables that a friend was telling me she was going to throw away because it included water chestnuts and she hates them and refuses to pick them out. Left after a nice hour of visiting and coffee, with a three pound bag of vegetables in my arms. I am going to give her some homemade rhubarb syrup next time we get together.
4. Unearthed an ugly dress from the very back of the closet and decided that it was not so ugly after all so it was not going to Goodwill.
5. Tried yet again to make beans palatable by putting them in a soup. No good. Husband is happy to eat the soup. Wish I liked beans.
5. Have you tried cooking beans like normal then making them into a purée for a soup base? That’s the only way my husband likes them. If he doesn’t really have to chew the beans he is ok, lol.
Lindsey, perhaps you could try bean-based sweetsas a way to get used to them: black bean brownies, cannelloni Blondies, etc.
It takes about 6 weeks for our taste buds to adjust, so it’s possible just having them regularly would do the trick, unless the aversion is so strong it prompts a gag reflex.
Your #1 is amazing! And a good reminder to read the fine print. What a great surprise that must have been!
1. We seemed to have a great stride since Jan 1 on staying within budget on groceries. I swear it is due to Aldi’s opening in town! Having said that, there are a couple of things I am not crazy about at Aldis:
a. apples, they seem to be mushy and flavorless often
b. clementines – sour. 3 times we’ve tried. done.
Good things at Aldis: their YUGE loaves of peasant bread. Makes the best damn garlic bread ever. Bell peppers. Half the price of most everyone else.
2. We “assigned a job to each dollar” so once pay day hits, there is little money in the checking account. VERY freaky. Have to stop and look at our Capitol One account where all our free savings accounts live: vacation, new roof, summer camp, xmas, grandkids, gifts, etc. THERE all that moola is. We have learned we’ll whittle it away if it isn’t somewhere safe. And it is growing!
3. Reading an excellent library book “Barking up the wrong tree – The surprising science behind why everything you know about success is mostly wrong” by Eric Barker. Excellent read. Might even buy it! Skills to develop for success. Tried one on yesterday at work and it worked! Might get that raise after all….
4. Committing to doing some small tasks every single day for just 10 minutes. Meditating, journaling, yoga, writing. Feeling excellent and the small bits are adding up!
5. Planning dinner with our grandkids. Making my kid friendly spaghetti sauce
http://ihearttightwads.com/favorite-recipe-series-kid-friendly-spaghetti-sauce/
I really dislike beans, so they are not a staple of our diet. I remember as a child always removing the beans from chili. Let’s see how many frugal things I can come up with.
1. I knew exactly how much was in my bank account until Friday (payday) and I needed to get gas and buy dinner for the kids last night before church. Split the small amount left in my bank account in half and used half for gas (enough until payday) and the other half for dinner at Friendly’s. I used a $3 off coupon to get my bill down to the amount I had left in my bank account. It’s been quite a hard month financially. But I’ll keep smiling. My co-worker and I make a game out of “how much do you have left in your bank account this pay period” We trust each other enough to disclose this and get a good laugh out of “who has the most”! I guess you have to find the bright side of something.
2. Verizon is my cell phone provider and I have been on top of my bill each month to ensure every line item is correct. When speaking with a representative I explained that I did a data boost prior to buying a larger data plan. She was nice enough to take the data boost charge off of my bill. Savings of $15!
3. I started a new bible study at church last night and disclosed to the group that there is so much of the bible that I don’t understand. They recommended that I buy an easier to read version. My pastor knows our financial situation and said she has an extra copy of that version at home that I can have. So sweet.
4. My two littles had their valentines day parties yesterday. The brought home enough candy and pencils and erasers for quite some time. I even snuck some of the candy into my lunch box today.
5. Hubby made me giggle with his homemade Valentine’s card that I found when I got home last night. (we work opposite shifts and I rarely see him during the week). he cut out a heart from a piece of construction paper and used one of the kids valentine bags (that they had received from their school) and put kisses in the bag for me. The kisses came from the kids valentines!!! zero dollars spent
Ha ha, you are so funny! I love your blog SO much.
Our frugal thing is that we didn’t spend a bunch of money on Valentine’s Day. No flowers, candy, jewelry, eating out, etc. We went to the gym together instead, thus improving our bottom line and our bottoms at the same time!
I feel your pain with the car repairs. I’m waiting for my car to get back from the body shop — the collision was our fault, our deductible — and because we have “fancy” paint it will not be ready until NEXT Friday. So instead of driving the Prius back and forth to work, I get to drive the 1997 F150 twice as often to get my husband to and from work.
But he is working, we have two vehicles, and I don’t usually have to do this. My friend’s husband passed out one day, and the doctor took his license for over 6 months. So I have a lot to be grateful for.
FFT:
1. My husband and I are both giving up alcohol for Lent. Water will be cheaper with dinner, even cheaper than the cheap wine I drink.
2. My house is a mess, but I am starting to declutter, rather than go shopping for something new. It will make the house look prettier.
3. I have enough bread ends to make bread pudding for breakfast this weekend, and then I’ll have room in the freezer for juicing the free lemons I was given last weekend.
4. I am grateful that my family does like beans. I just made a crockpot full of chickpeas, and I will finish them up in tonight’s dinner.
5. In fact, I think I’ll make refried beans for the kids’ friends that are coming over tomorrow night. They did not like chili, and I refuse to order pizza every time the come over. We’ll figure something out, or they can go hungry. They’re old enough to eat if they’re hungry.
When my son has his friends over for D&D, I often make a pot of spaghetti. We always have pasta on hand, and I usually have a container of marinara in the fridge. Cheap & filling. If they want more to eat, they usually make a batch of popcorn in our (ancient) air popper.
Thanks, Cathy. One of the kids doesn’t eat tomato sauce (as far as I can tell), but I will try that next time. He also doesn’t eat mac and cheese, or much else except cereal.
Try making the pasta, and ask the kids what they want on/in it. In this group, two like marinara+cheese, one likes olive oil+salt, one likes it with just a bit of shredded mozz,, and one has non-dairy “butter”+salt&pepper. Two of those kids are mine and both have multiple food allergies, so I’m used to making a plain “base” and then letting everyone personalize their topping, but it also makes it pretty easy that way. I serve the pasta straight from the pot–just have the boys grab a bowl and then they customize. They’re also old enough to choose whether to eat or skip a meal. Even with GF pasta (because…wheat allergy), it only runs me ~$4 to feed five teen boys.
Four dollars to feed five teenage boys is amazing! I will take your suggestion, and make spaghetti next time. If all they eat is plain carbs, I guess they’re old enough to suffer from their choices. At least I’ll have made food available!
FFT Valentine’s Day edition:
1. Gave my husband a chocolate bar & some chocolate hearts, bought on sale, and packaged in a gift bag from the stash (NONE of which we’ve purchased). Cute card from the 99 cent Trader Joe’s selection. Husband made me several hearts cut out of red paper on which he’d written a variety of V-Day sentiments. Hid them around the house in places he knew I’d find them. Very cute. I made dinner for us and our youngest that included roast chicken and a “red” salad (red romaine, roasted beets, bell peppers, purple onions, and feta (which I knew would turn pink because of the beets)). Baked a batch of biscotti for dessert since son has been asking me for more ever since New Year’s.
2. Proud of oldest’s frugal Valentine’s Day. He baked heart-shaped cookies for his girlfriend, she made him a stuffed bear. Both used ingredients/supplies they had on hand. They went to a museum on campus, free with their student IDs, then went out to dinner using a gift card son received for his birthday. I think they were out of pocket ~$5.
guess that’s only TWO Frugal Things.
3. Planning to cut the rest of the meat off the chicken and use the carcass to make soup for tonight’s dinner. It’s cold and snowy today and soup sounds awesome.
4. Errands today include stopping by county library to either return or renew a book my son is using in his English class. He’s renewed online the max number of times and it’s due today. Planning to avoid late fees, but I don’t know if they’ll let him check it out again. Hedging bets, I placed a hold on a copy through the city library system. There’s one hold ahead of him, but a copy should become available over the weekend. While I’m out, I’ll drop off a donation at Savers since it’s in the same part of town.
5. The usual: eating down the fridge/freezer/pantry trying to Eat All The Foods; bundling up; batching errands; reading library books; and watching the Olympics for entertainment.
I breastfed the baby. Always frugal! I also pumped (mostly for my own comfort but also so we can extend the time he gets breastmilk even after I’ve weaned.)
I used cloth diapers when we weren’t leaving the house (they don’t hold enough pee when I’m out and about so for convenience I do still use disposables sometimes).
I got my husband chocolates and chocolate covered strawberries for Valentine’s Day instead of something we don’t need. (Consumable gift! He bought me Costco flowers…I finally convinced him delivery flowers are too pricey)
Today we’ll go to a free story time at the library, provided it’s not canceled again. Today I’ll also call ahead of time so as not to waste a trip!
We did the same thing with freezing breast milk and it came in unexpectedly helpful in transitioning to whole milk (once it was age appropriate). He didn’t much care for cow’s milk, so being able to mix in breast milk starting at 50:50 and then slowly increasing the % of cow’s milk, smoothed the transition for all of us. Best, Robin
Katy we’ve had a few expenses that have us going through the five stages of grief as well! Medical expenses + #1 below.
Let’s see if I can come up with FFT
1. Kitchen sink was leaking underneath. Hubs took apart and determined we need a new faucet. I found a quality brand with good reviews on Amazon that I really liked and sent Hubs a pic. He went to plumbing store and there price was almost $100 higher. Even with paying an extra 9.99 for one-day shipping so we can get it installed before the long weekend, we saved almost $90 from store’s price. (Of course, we’re still out a bunch paying for faucet and plumber to install — Hubs is not that handy)
2. Have really been wanting to furnish/dress up our large patio. Previously detailed on here my score of a street-side giveaway large rustic wood table that my son and I dragged home and he fixed up for me last summer. At end of season last year, we also got two good quality wicker chairs and a wicker settee in great condition that my former husband had. He was moving out of state and offered them to our young adult kids who in turn gifted them to me. They did not have cushions though so I’ve been watching the prices to find two chair cushions and a settee cushion in outdoor fabric I liked for a decent price. Found a sale at Pier 1 and got all three cushions for under $50 total in a great navy and white striped fabric. Original retail price for the three cushions = $190 so SCORE! Patio should now be set for coming summer for total outlay of less than $75 (cushions, plus cost of materials to fix up table)! Already had chairs for table. Still want a low table for between settee and chairs, Craigslist here I come!
3. Stopped at Goodwill and found a pair of Nike volleyball shorts for DD in great shape for $4.99. Retail = $30. Any little bit helps with all of DD’s volleyball expenses!
4. And the mundane — brought breakfast to eat at work, didn’t buy Starbucks, took bus to work today to save on parking and gas, and
5. Successfully got two weeks out of tank of gas again, my goal is to only fill up 2 x/month and to use my Freddy’s points to get discount (usually .30-.50 off a gallon) from their already-lower than the competition prices.
1) Saving shower warm-up water in buckets for flushing toilet.
2) Used cotton yarn on hand to stitch together two cotton crocheted washcloths, making one long rectangle of a backscrubber. Ahhh.
3) Left the (scrubbed) skin on an organic butternut squash that got cooked in a recent pressure cooker stew. The skin gets tender and edible, contributes fiber and nutrients, less scraps go in the compost pile.
4) Made popcorn in the microwave from bulk/sale purchased kernels.
5) Went thru several boxes of fabric that DH brought back from his mom’s. I’m conducting a reality check on how many side gigs I can have – I already work full-time+, so my next career as an ebayer is going to have to wait awhile. I’ll pass the circa 1970 polyester double knit yardage along to someone who can make use of or sell it.
I had to read through your comments a couple of times, as I kept reading it as you were putting your scrubbed skin on a butternut squash.
EWWWWW!
Me too!
Glad you figured it out. Nope, I’m vegan – no animal flesh, please. 😉
Katy has encouraged me to serve my family more bean-based meals! I chatted with two friends this past weekend who said they hate beans of all kinds and will never eat a one! That’s just weird.
Frugalness for the last few weeks
Valentine’s I went to a local merchant here in my town and they have bulk bin candy no wrappers equals no trash, I brought my own reusable snack bags to put candy in and I only spent 6 dollars for Valentines day treats, my fail not bringing enough bags so I brought home two cellophane bags that will be used to wrap two cookie gifts later. Valentines supper I made hubby and I bacon cheeseburgers with bacon from my neighbor since I had got her croissants. I found a ball mason jar in our apartment community glass recycling bin. I’ve taken in many donations to Savers and found a glass juice pitcher for when I make juice from the frozen concentrates it’s the perfect size. My husband and I came up with a solution for the dry air in our apartment without spending money, he suggested using a ramekin of water sitting on top of the vent in our bedroom to moisten the air and it works! no money spent and hubby thought of this! We recently discovered that Aldi by us has been increasing their prices on lots of items so we did a little research and comparison and we spend less money for the same items from Aldi at walmart so we will now do the bulk of of grocery (food only) shopping at walmart and Sam’s using Aldi for the odds-n-ends pantry items. I’ve been getting free rides from my neighbors alot and as thank you since they will not take cash I’ve gotten them Hershey candy bars that were on sale by two at $1 get one free so that took care of the 3 neighbors that have been helping me.
1. I took my husband’s vehicle in for an oil change and they threw the tire rotation in for free. I also drank the free tea while waiting.
2. I took advantage of oodles of sales, promotions, and coupons at the grocery store.
I also helped my daughter figure out and file her taxes, for free.
1. Found a penny.
2. Sold an item on Etsy that had been listed for awhile, but $10 is $10. The item was free.
3. Gave away a dozen flour tortillas that we could not eat (we had already eaten a dozen).
4. A friend at church made chocolate-covered strawberries for the congregation Wed night, so we had a free treat for Valentine’s Day. No other expenditures for Valentine’s Day.
5. We were given samples of a Cadbury milk-chocolate egg at Costco today, so were gifted another Valentine’s treat.
1 – For Valentine’s Day I picked myself up TWO $3.99 bouquets at Aldi. Hubby is under strict orders NOT to stop at any store on his way home from work on 2/14 to stand in line with other husbands and overpay for flowers!
2- Valentine’s Day date night was 2/15 – I won 2 tickets from a local newspaper for Eddie Money The Musical. It is written by and features Eddie Money telling how he rose to fame. A fun mostly free evening ($5 for parking)
3- Frugal fail – My doctor ordered an ultrasound and I failed to read the directions about drinking 30 ounces of water until I was on the way to the appointment – I panicked and bought 2 bottles of water at Dunkin Donuts which I then chugged.
We also had our Valentine’s steak at home but as noted above, I should have salted it a lot more. The red onion marmalade completely saved it, though!
I’ve been cooking our pantry a lot and need to find a good use for the large bag of frozen mango and strawberries that I bought intending to make many smoothies (I haven’t). Ideas are welcome! Perhaps I should put them in some muffins?
I saw a recipe for berry scones on PBS. The trick for the fruit not getting mushy was to not thaw the fruit and roll it in some powdered sugar before you fold it in the batter. I never tried it but theirs looked good.
I had an elderly neighbor who told me when she was growing up the main foods her family ate were pinto beans, cornbread, and cabbage. She lived a long and healthy life.
1. My husband went to the dentist today, and needed $1,350 of work. Luckily, I had emergency savings set aside, the first time in all my life I’ve had that. It’s through reading financial books and frugal blogs like this one that I’m able to be fiscally solvent.
2. Bought the school lunch today, at $3, it’s a good deal. Took my two tiny orange juice cartons and put them in my backpack to bring home and have another day.
Valentines Day for an old married couple:
Steaks bought at 1/2 price, cooked at home, baked potato, salad. Candles on the table, music by Pandora.
Bath salts were free essential oils and epsom salts.
Fell asleep in front of a movie on Netflix.
But hey, we are happy! I often say that people are trolling bars looking for someone to be happy at home with someday.
1. DIY’d a keeper for my watchband after the original one broke, so now the end of the strap isn’t flapping around. The replacement material was a scrap of vinyl from my sewing stash box.
2. Ate a lot of leftovers this week.
3. Altered a pair of slacks that did not fit right, and they are comfortable now.
4. Touched up a chip in the edge of our 65 year old laundry sink with white paint. Have to refresh the paint every 3 or 4 years, but it is a cheap fix.
5. Darned a pair of wool socks.
My bf challenged me to pay off my student loans by my birthday, which is next month. I warned him things may Get weird!
1. Am not thrifting until I have every piece of inventory listed on both eBay and Poshmark. I tend to pick and chose based on my experience as a reseller, but if my attempt to be student loan free by my 28th birthday, I am locking it down!
2. Work is still slow at my new clinic, so I am listing and reading. I traded books for a copy of “Millionaire WOMEN next door” , girl power. I know, libraries, but 1. I almost got arrested for not returning a library book in college (yes, this happened), and 2. I really like supporting this local book/media store.
3. We did a very low key Valentine’s Day celebration. Cooked dinner in, hung out, played a card game.
4. Eating whatever is in my pantry to delay grocery shopping. My boyfriend I has been pushed too far, so I will probably make the trip to Aldi today to get some things.
5. Went to Michaels yesterday with a 20% off coupon. Looked around, got overwhelmed by the after church crowd, left with zero things.
I like “weird.”