Five Frugal Things | a Sugru fix

Loved your headphone adapter fix. One thing I’ve done to protect pinch points on cables is to add a coiled spring to guard against excess flex. The spring from an expired click ink pen works for small diameter items. I also use wire coils from old day-timer/ planners or other poly paper binders.

What great frugal reminders everyone has posted! I, too, am trying to do the batch shopping. Now, for the Frugal stuff - car switching version. Not really frugal, yet... I gave my son the blue 2005 Toyota Matrix that I had lent them in the fall - decided that they might as well have it and drive it until it is done, it is stuck at 299,999 km (Toyota was cheap with this era of cars, the odometer stops here) and I think has at least another 30-50,000 km on it. Only one owner before me, and they did regular maintenance . I put a few bucks into it to keep it going, now my son can do the rest. Meanwhile, I PURCHASED a RED 2007 Toyota Matrix from my girlfriend who got it from her son who purchased it after he drove my blue one for a week or so. Small world. He has left the country and before he did, while he had the car, he replaced the brakes, put in a backup camera that also replaced the stereo, put in heated seat covers (!!!) and replaced the clutch. I thought I got a great deal as I paid what he had originally paid - however the 'free' second set of tires on fancy rims, as well as the winter tires, both were not up to snuff (the summer tires were dated 2006!!) so I have just invested in two sets of used but good tires. The Matrix is a fairly economical vehicle to run, and I will be using it for most errands unless I need the capacity of my pickup truck. Also, though, my #2 son is in need of a car so he might be borrowing it for some of his random work trips. Thing is, the RED matrix is a stick/standard, and so #2 son is in for more driving lessons from mom so he doesn't wreck my new clutch! On a different front, I, too, am eating out of freezer and pantry, avoiding the grocery store as I have a purchasing habit. This means we are out of boxed cereal, and #2 son has taken to cooking up eggs (we have chickens) for his breakfasts. He was grazing the cereal boxes at midnight, now that the ready-to-eat snacks are disappearing I suspect he will start to eat more porridge in the morning or middle of the night. I have a lot of oat flakes in the pantry! I do still stop at our local discount vegetable market, and sticker shock was evident this last week. Onions were $1.39 a pound, and that hurt too much - so I bought $25 worth in a big 50 pound bag! I have a few buddies who eat onions as I do, so will share with them and the kids, and they will last several months in my cool basement. even if I only use half, I am still ahead of the game. Once some of my other busy chaos is settled, I may chop a bunch and freeze, I love having packages of 1 cup of onion to pull out for a faster meal. The freezer sometimes gets to smell like onions, but that never hurt anyone. I have a kitchen renovation going on so the dining area is a mess, along with 40 baby chicks in a bin that really need to be put out in the shed - another project without time to get done. To save some money I have pulled out my old incubator to try hatching my own barnyard layers, today they started to crack out of their shells but I doubt I will get 9 out of the 30+ eggs I put in, always a disappointment to have a poor hatch, but they are almost free! Tomorrow is a day of long drives as is Friday, #2 needing rides to a ferry that is an hour away. I will use gas buddy to find the best refill locations, and visit my chosen daughter for dinner on Friday night before I pick him up again, which is a frugal way to see someone I love and haven't connected with for far too long.

I finally made the switch to Mint Mobile. And "so far, so good." I had lowered my Verizon Wireless bill to just about as low as I could get it ($48ish/month) by hopping onto a friend's Unlimited Family Plan. But I was lured into investigating Mint Mobile with their $15/month 4G data plan (unlimited talk/text), because when I inquired at VZW about my data usage the last few months, I was informed that my data usage was always well under 4G (usually 2G-3G range). That's just under $400/year in savings!!! I especially loved that you can order a $5 7-Day Trial SIM card from Amazon, making it a virtually risk-free endeavor. The process of getting fully up and running on it with my iPhone (SE 2nd Edition) wasn't as seamless as it could have been, but their customer service was very helpful throughout the process.

Hi, Kristen...Thanks for sharing good advice on your blog. I noticed your post about repairing the adapter with Sugru, though. I had a phone charger with damage around the same area, close to where it plugs in. The wires had started to become slightly visible. I was planning to replace the charger soon but was still using it...and then it started to smoke. Thank God I was near the charger when this happened and noticed a burning smell. Although your adapter didn't look like any wires were starting to show, I would be concerned about something similar happening under the Sugru. Just a thought! From, Julie (in CA)

A shout out to Sugru's customer service as well. We got a big pack as a Christmas gift some time back and I was waiting until the 'perfect' time to justify using it Turn out I waited too long and it wouldn't set up, just stayed gummy. There is an expiration date on the packages and apparently it means business! I contacted Sugru asking if there was any remedy, since I hated throwing away several unopened packages with the same date. Turns out there is no recovery, but they kindly send me a couple replacement pouches free and they worked like a charm. Very impressed with the product and the customer service!