1. I sold two things on Facebook Marketplace
Two items are out of my house, they’re now in homes where they’re needed, and I have $80.
This is a nice little collection of benefits for the 10-15 minutes I spent making the listings and responding to messages.
Note: Every time I list something for sale, I think, “What if no one buys this and I wasted my time taking the photos and making a listing??” But 99% of the time, someone does end up buying what I list, and my fears turn out to be unwarranted.
2. I poured the last of the shampoo into a small container.
I had bought a huge pump-top bottle of Pantene at Costco a little while back. The pump works great until the last bit of shampoo is out of reach of the pump.
And since it’s a pump-top, you can’t really turn the bottle upside down like you would with a regular container.
When this happened a few days ago, I grabbed a little silicone travel toiletry container and poured the rest of the shampoo in there.
Now it’ll be easy to use up; no pump necessary!
Incidentally, these silicone travel bottles are great. I got them in my Mighty Fix and I like them way better than the hard-sided containers I previously was using.
(Not that any of us are doing much traveling right now. Ha.)
3. I refilled the cornstarch container with store brand.
I really like the hard plastic container that Argo now sells their cornstarch in (so much less messy than those bags!)
But I’d rather not keep buying the containers because they’re slightly more expensive, plus I prefer paper waste over plastic when possible.
So I’ve just been buying boxes of store brand cornstarch and refilling the Argo container.
Cornstarch is not terribly expensive, name-brand or not, and I don’t buy it all that often, so this is quite a miniscule savings.
But hey, where will you share miniscule savings if not in a five frugal things post??
4. I planted some crocus bulbs from Aldi
Aldi usually has some pretty good deals on bulbs this time of year, so keep an eye out when you shop.
These, like most bulbs, are theoretically a good plant investment because they are supposed to come back year after year.
I have hit and miss luck with that (my little grape hyacinths all disappeared the second year!), but I planted these crocus bulbs with an optimistic heart.
Here’s hoping they’ll delight us for years to come.
5. I froze my used frying oil
When I finished making Japanese fried chicken, which called for a quart of oil, I cooled and strained the oil, poured it back into the container, and froze it.
That makes it easy to find and use when I make this recipe again. So far, the same quart has served me twice, and it’s back in the freezer again, ready for a third round.
Your turn! What frugal things have you been up to lately?
Share in the comments and inspire us. 🙂
Mary in VA
Sunday 1st of November 2020
Kristin, I saw very similar bottles recently at Dollar Tree. They were being promoted as containers for condiments for socially distant picnics, but I immediately saw they'd also work for shampoo, face cream, hand soap, etc. Much easier to use than hard-sided containers. And you can't beat the price of $1!
Kristen
Sunday 1st of November 2020
Ooh, nice! That's a great price.
Jeri
Thursday 22nd of October 2020
I do the cornstarch thing too, not so much for savings, but those boxes always leak.
Heidi Louise
Saturday 24th of October 2020
For radio show sound effects, squeezing a box of cornstarch is the squishy-squeaky noise of someone walking in the snow. Just a comment in case anyone is doing home theatre now.
priskill
Thursday 22nd of October 2020
So excellent -- your rate of pay for the marketplace sale was $320 - $400 dollars per hour :)!
It ahs been a crazy couple of weeks and we are going back into school Monday. So -- here are my tiny frugalities for the week . . .
1. Ate every breakfast, lunch and dinner in this week except Pollo Loco Tuesday night and Del Taco lunch with a ex-coworker who is lovely and generous -- my pleasure to treat. 2. I, also, squooze as much shampoo and toothpaste out of their respective containers as possible. Kept adding water to the "empty" shampoo bottle and got 3 - 4 extra washes. Also doing this with the dish soap and schooling husband that these soaps are super-formulated so you only need a bit. 3. At school, trying to use what I have already and buy as little as I can new. Student boxes, decorations, etc. -- there is plenty of stuff here already and the district supplies most essentials. 4. Not sure if this counts but making big effort to get and stay healthy, walking every day and eating carefully -- I think we actually save money when eating mindfully :) 5. Well, all the usual stuff -- library books, buying chicken breasts on sale and freezing for later, eating my oatmeal and brewing iced tea every morning. (1.5 cents per glass :)
Carol in Sacramento
Wednesday 21st of October 2020
We used 8 small urns up and down the aisle at our daughter's wedding. To celebrate Christmas, I'm going to plant them with red cyclamen and give them as gifts to friends in early December.
Annie
Wednesday 21st of October 2020
I feel the same about my metal Davis Baking Powder container. I love the lip that helps you scrape the excess off the measuring spoon. I found a cheaper store brand to refill it with.
1. Cut open two tubes of cosmetic creams to get out the last dabs that won't seem to squeeze out even with a tub squeezer tool. It's amazing how many days worth of product is left in them! 2. Cut open all the salt and pepper packets we have been collecting from takeout for a while and managed to refill my salt and pepper shakers. The ketchup packets will be used for meatloaf at some point. 3. Darned yet another pair of socks. Haven't bought new socks in three years! 4. Finally went to my office at the library to pack my stuff before we move to another floor. Found some giveaway books I had left on my desk and was able to take them home to read on my vacation. 5. Used a coupon to score free bourbon pecans when we needed to buy other stuff from a website. They are sooooo good but a bit pricey so we don't buy them that often.