1. I helped Sonia find a pair of clearance shoes
We had a small funeral to go to, and she needed a pair of black shoes.
Sonia does have a massive collection of shoes, but exactly zero of them were black.
At first, all the shoes we could find were in the $45 price range, but then I spied a pair of kitten heel black shoes with a bow on the toe.
Quintessential Sonia.
And they fit her better than the more expensive shoes anyway.
She’s responsible for her own clothing spending at this point (we give her a clothing budget), so she was pleased to see the price was only $14.
2. I brought soap/detergent to the beach.
We went to the beach last week, and in order to minimize extra grocery spending, I brought some of my own household things.
(There’s no Aldi at the beach, so groceries/household items are more expensive there. Harris Teeter = always pricier than Aldi!)
I poured some laundry detergent into a Mason jar and packed that, I brought dishwasher detergent pacs from Aldi, I brought hand soap from Aldi, and so on.
3. I brought food from home
I went shopping at Aldi before the trip and packed what I could because Aldi food is guaranteed to be cheaper than what we buy at the beach.
I try to always bring a salt shaker and a pepper grinder and any spices I will need.
And this year I also remembered to pack a little Mason jar of sugar, because it is very annoying to have to buy a bag of sugar for just a few days at the beach!
4. I cooked every night except one
Our condo had a kitchen, so I planned a menu before we left, we went grocery shopping for perishables and such when we got there, and we cooked (easy stuff) every night but the last one, which is when we got carryout.
5. We used up almost all of our food
I have never once managed to leave a vacation with zero food thrown away, but we did get really close.
a use-it-up breakfast for me
I used up what I could, packed as much as I could in our cooler, and then threw the rest out (one cannot transport ice cream in a cooler on a multi-hour car trip. And sadly, no one wanted it for breakfast. Ha.)
What frugal things have you been up to lately? Share your frugal five in the comments!
P.S. In terms of COVID and our beach trip: we went to an un-crowded beach, stayed apart from other people (easy at the beach off-season!), wore masks at rest stops on our way down and at the grocery store, stayed at a condo with an outdoor entrance, and didn’t go anywhere besides our condo, the grocery store, and the beach.
And from what we’ve read, we gathered that an uncrowded beach, off-season, is a pretty low-risk place to be.
Karen
Monday 26th of October 2020
I just found your website, it's wonderful. I found in my local grocery store in the meat department bags of frozen chicken. They are the pieces where the legs and thighs are attached, they are 10 lb. bags, they were 99 cents per pound. They are easy to separate and put in smaller bags for the freezer. You can find many, many uses for chicken.
Kristen
Monday 26th of October 2020
Welcome, welcome!
Tammie H.
Monday 12th of October 2020
Frugal Five Things is my favorite part of your blog! I struggle with being frugal, but love reading everyone's comments.
I recently lost my job, so I definitely need all the tips I can get.
1. My neighbor had brought me dinner twice and it has been enough for 2 meals each time! Yay for not having to cook. (She even brought me a dozen eggs tonight.)
2. I download all of my books from the library and have for months now.
3. Starting to make Christmas crafts/gifts from things I've had saved.
4. I'm helping a friend declutter and organize and she is giving me lots of "goodies" that she no longer wants. Some of these my grand baby is getting use of and the others she has told me to sell them if it's not something I don't really want/need. She did give me a brand new air fryer! How have I lived without one of those???
5. ?????
lisa
Thursday 8th of October 2020
The shoes are adorable! What a find! The beach trip sounds very relaxing and peaceful. I'm glad everyone enjoyed it!
A pretty frugal week, I think...
1) I found Tyson breaded chicken for $2.10/bag on clearance and got some. Easy dinner as chicken parm, sandwiches or with fries. 2) Earned ebay bucks and swagbucks. With those, I got face cream and mascara for free on ebay...I luv ebay.... 3) I earned a Best Buy GC and used it to get online video games for DS2 for his stocking.... 4) We have a bakery outlet that sells day old bread for $1 a loaf as well as buns, boxed cakes, etc. I never knew it existed. And here I was paying full price! I buy several loaves of soft italian bread and freeze them..... 5) I've been doing my Christmas shopping and there have been requests, so at least I'm not guessing as to what they want. Paying for it was another matter. So, I decided to cash out all of my stocks and not have a credit card bill. Some stocks did very well, while others didn't. In the end, I paid cash for all of my gifts and the amount that I'll be taxed on after the sale of my stocks? Ok, wait for it.....$3.42. I can live with that....
Cyndi R.
Thursday 8th of October 2020
1. Finally got enough points on ny Neilsen Mobile App for a $25 gift card. ( i use Inboxdollars, Swagbucks,Fetch and Neilsen and do pretty well but you have to be patient and diligent!) 2. Talked to my dad who doesnt have internet about what he wants for Christmas and he named 2 cds, and a book which i used my Amazon gift card for and spent $2.58! 3. Found a signed Dineh Southwest pot at the thrift store for $2 and should be able to sell for $30-40. 4. Continue to stay close to home and not driving far so fas lasting a long time! 5. Is frugal fail... Didnt feel well yesterday and caved and ordered teriyaki through Doordash since the hub wont eat cereal for dinner like me.... on the other hand havent been out to a restaurant in forever so i am still ahead.
Katy in Africa
Wednesday 7th of October 2020
1. We drove h ok me from a work trip. I made empanadas for the drive, my new favorite trip food. It's not messy and yummy. I did buy some sodas in the drive, but other than that it was food I packed for the drive. 2. I'm working on a 30 day decluttering. I'm mostly focusing on organizing, we have spent extra money and time before because something was lost and we couldn't find it, so I truly count this as frugal. 3. We are starting school tomorrow. Most of the books are new, but both the kids' math text books are used, or a hand me down. 4. I'm wearing a shirt a friend gave to me. 5. My kids are using old jelly jars to keep their pencils in. My daughter wrapped hers in paper she decorated.
AEW
Wednesday 7th of October 2020
1. I picked up my Walmart order and 2 of the 3 packages of eggs had multiple broken and cracked eggs. I got a refund, pulled out the unbroken ones, threw out a few, and used the rest that were cracked for an unscheduled scrambled egg breakfast. 2. Still eating from the freezer so our grocery bill was about half this week from what it usually is. Should be able to get at least one more week or two out of freezer meat, possibly even 3. 3. Saving up my target circle points to use on Christmas gifts for the kids. 4. My daughter had to give a birthday gift to a friend and we were out of wrapping paper so I grabbed one of the newspaper comic pages my mom saves for my kids and used it as wrapping paper. Free and gave the newspaper a new use! 5. Made yet another library trip for free reading material!