- Belle needed a calculator for school, so we headed off to Staples to get her a scientific calculator. We bought something fairly inexpensive ($20), but our next stop was a thrift store. Guess what John spotted?! A graphing calculator for $5!!!!! Not only was this a far superior calculator, it was also a lot cheaper. We will be returning the (unopened) Staples calculator with glee.
2. I needed to gas up and was on the end of town with the gas station that removes 0.3 cents/liter for CAA members. I also used my Dividend Visa, which means I get cash back for the gas purchase. Win-win.
3. My yoga passes were about to expire and there was no way I could use them all up. Since the yoga studio has very few offerings over the summer, I asked if I could get some extra time added to my membership. Not only did the owner say yes, but I promptly booked two classes.
4. We have a lot of natural light in our house (which I adore), but in the summer, we’ve taken to drawing the blinds during the heat of the day, and it makes such a difference in keeping the house cooler and reducing the burden on our heat pump/AC unit.
5. The kids are going through a sliced turkey phase and I pounced on this clearance meat (normally $8.99, marked down to $2). I bought it long before the expiration date, and we had immediate use for it!
6. I also used a PC Optimum points deal, so I got $20 back in points on an $80 grocery haul.
7. I enjoyed my free parent ticket to watch the university soccer game when Indy was a ball retriever.
8. I gave myself a pedicure and a manicure at home with inexpensive supplies. I feel so much more put together when my nails are done — and doing it at home costs a fraction of a professional job.
9. I bought produce from a roadside farm stand. Four lbs of fresh green beans for $5, a watermelon for $3, the most delicious grape tomatoes for $2/pint, and fresh blueberries for $4/pint. It was a great haul that saved money and helped support a local business.
10. I had a lemon that needed to be used, so I made a batch of lemon bread (and promptly froze most of it for future use). And my microwave was in dire need of cleaning, so I tossed the remnants of the lemon into a bowl of water, microwaved the whole kit and caboodle, and wiped down the microwave.
And that’s a wrap.
Your turn.
- Best frugal wins lately?
- Do your kids go through food “phases” like mine with sliced turkey? What’s the current obsession at your house?
- What’s your favourite at-home self-care ritual?
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Oh, I love the calculator find, that one will serve Belle for years to come!
We don’t have AC at home, so our version of “climate control” is pulling the blinds down whenever the sun shows up, east side in the morning, west side in the afternoon. It really does make a huge difference!
We’re travelling in Austria right now and decided to stock up at the supermarket and have a picnic-style dinner in the hotel room (bread, cheese, meat). Very cosy!
Free climate control is the best!
Enjoy the picnic. That’s what Birchie, Belle, and I had yesterday when we visited Peggy’s Cove.
I need a mani/pedi badly, haven’t had one for 2 months and I also feel put together with them done. just a bit lazy lately to do it myself or go to store.
we tried mini maracuja this weekend and we all love it! sweet ands lightly sour.
frugal find? meal prep over the weekend to have food ready for weeks to come.
Cooking at home is probably the #1 frugal thing we do, too!
What a great find- that calculator retails for about $90 new. My daughter found a pink version of the ti-83 in a thrift store for a quarter- after a little clean up and some new batteries, I am a fancy math geek.
Good call on the yoga passes- it never hurts to ask for something like that! Probably the one of the best thrifty lessons- it costs nothing to ask, and the worse they can say is no.
Not frugal this week – I paid a lot for sneakers for my high school son- his old sneakers ripped ( with marching band they have a hard life), and there were no sales online. So I just took him to an actual shoes store and he tried things on and I bought what fit. No time to comparison shop or try a thrift store. ( My sons only own one pair of shoes and some flip-flops each. Is this thrifty?)
A pink calculator — how fun!
We bought both kids new indoor sneakers for school this year. I looked for them at thrift stores but…no luck. It’s okay. I know that I do plenty of thrifty things and it’s not a moral failing to pay full price for a needed item! And hooray for the convenience.
Also. The fact that your sons only own ONE PAIR OF SHOES is extremely thrifty. My kids own…a lot more than that!
I’m going to a dinner for volunteers at the thrift shop where I sometimes work here in Haliburton. We’re all to bring a gift to exchange (purchased from the Lily Ann), and also we’re supposed to wear something purchased at the Lily Ann – easy for me:) Ada and Noelle’s parents are just beginning the “no peanut butter” lunch phase… That rule began back when Liam and Shannon were in early elementary school. “Wow” veg butter just isn’t the same:(
That volunteer event sounds so fun and I absolutely LOVE the idea of bringing a gift and wearing an outfit from the thrift store. How fun.
That’s great that the studio let you extend your pass – I remember when I worked for a few different studios and they would never have done that. Your nails look great! I always do my fingernails at home, and I used to do my own pedis too, but since I moved here I have been getting them done professionally. So…not super frugal but kind of a lovely treat all the same.
PS I guess my posts aren’t showing up in Feedly anymore? Or late? Idk why, mysteries abound.
A pedicure does sound like a lovely treat. There’s no economical place locally, so I just do it myself, but I can see myself “outsourcing” this luxury sooner rather than later.
So your If I Had A Billion Dollars post showed up days late, but I just checked now and your newest post is there. Technical glitch on my end? Thankfully, all seems to be right with the world again <3
Lately our store (Sprouts) has been rotating different vegan proteins on sale. A couple weeks ago seitan was $3 instead of $6.99 and last week tempeh was 99 cents!!! Each time, I stocked up. My daughter does tend to complain when we have the same thing over and over again, but tough luck! I do try to rotate it enough so we don’t eat exactly the same thing for every meal, of course (she’s just extremely picky and likes to exaggerate).
You found a graphing calculator for $5!!!!! I really have to start going to thrift stores more often.
I have never once heard of seitan! I had to look that one up.
Tough luck indeed. My kiddos are the same way and sometimes I just tell them it builds character 😉 They don’t seem impressed by that answer.
I’m seriously trying to think of a single frugal win in my life in the last week. I guess…I am using a greeting card from my card box for when I had to send a condolence card and a graduation card. I used postage stamps that I bought before the cost of postage went up. This hardly seems in keeping with frugality. LOL. I’m a spendthrift, Elisabeth. You wouldn’t be able to deal with my spending ways.
I definitely don’t think I’d consider you a spendthrift, Engie! You go to a free fitness class! You cook from scratch! And postage stamps are NOT cheap, so stocking up before a price hike is a very frugal choice, indeed.
One frugal swap from last week is that instead of getting a stupidly expensive cake pop from Starbucks to celebrate Paul learning to ride a bike, they each got a cookie from the grocery store (which is still expensive at $2/cookie, but much cheaper from a cost/bite perspective as they only were allowed to eat half of it, and will finish it for dessert one night this week).
Yum. And it made me chuckle to see this broken down into a cost/bite analysis 🙂 Only you, Lisa! Love it.
When life gives you lemons…make lemon bread! I’m not trying to make anyone jealous, but I can confirm that it was delicious.
Stepson #2 went through a strong turkey sandwich phase this summer, but not a strong “put it on the list when you finish it” phase, so Hubs got shortchanged on lunch supplies more than once. The sammies were pretty elaborate – he toasted the bread and then he gave them a minute or so in the air fryer.
My frugal win of today was stocking up on Canadian stamps so I’m covered if postage rates go up for future post card writing!
I am a bit embarrassed to report how many slices of lemon bread I had today…
Yay for snail mail and the blogging community that is helping the movement thrive.
That nail color is so pretty! Which brand/color is it?
My biggest frugal win was finally using the points I’d racked up at the gas station toward a tank of gas. Saved $13!
It’s LA Colors Gel Sweet Heart.
Yay for getting to spend points!! And gas is NOT cheap, so every little bit feels like a major win.
Totally agree about the nails, but I do mine like 1x/year!
I was so fortunate to get a bag of hand-me-downs for myself from my SIL. We are similar heights and she was donating a bunch of clothes and just gave them to me. Ahhhh I was so thankful. I don’t have time to shop (or don’t take time to) for myself for clothing so this was amazing as well as money saving.
Katie, what a perfect set-up. New-to-you clothes that you know will fit, zero shopping OR financial expenditure required. I love this.
“Feeling put together” —I despise nail polish, but do my best to ALWAYS wear earrings. It might be a mildly interesting question/post about what makes your readers feel “put together”.
Not owning a microwave, I was so interested to learn how you cleaned yours (and wishing for a loaf of that forbidden* lemon bread, or a slice, or maybe just a single bite. . . sigh.)
*Always fighting that dadgum A1c and wishing for an era where everything isn’t datafied.
That would be an absolutely wonderful blog post and watch for it to come to your inbox sometime soon. What a great idea, Jana. I will run with this.
I feel the same way about earrings. I think the #1 thing that makes me feel put together is having my hair and makeup done to at least a basic level (I am a minimalist in both respects), but I rarely go out without earrings. I don’t always have painted nails, but it definitely does make me feel better when I do.
The lemon bread is delicious!
I can’t imagine life without a microwave. It is my most-used appliance.
Way to save, Elisabeth!
MBMOM11 – ok your comment just took me back. I had a pink TI-83 in high school/university and golly did I think I was cool!
I’m impressed with the farm stand prices! Also good timing on finding the calculator right away. So often it feels like the perfect thing appears in the thrift store right after the item has been bought elsewhere and somehow used so it’s not returnable. 🙃
Frugal wins:
– Several components of dinner tonight are from the category of “vegetable that needs to be used up ASAP or it will be composted”.
– I found pjs second hand for both big kids in the next size up. We’ve been blessed with a lot of hand me downs but I feel like they rarely contain pjs for some reason.
– I found a Waldorf doll making kit with all the components included for $10 secondhand. New Waldorf dolls are $$$$$$$$! A has started being interested in dolls and I’m hoping to make up the doll for Christmas for her.
– Our new washing machine is significantly bigger so we can wash larger loads = fewer loads = less electricity
– We used our library cards to get free admission to a museum this weekend. Normally it’s $28/adult!!! (The kids are all still free but once C turns 6 in a few months it will cost $20 for her.)
– Needed a couple books for school for C and shopped around to find the best price to buy them used.
We were fortunate we found them on the same day so the new calculator was returnable but I know just the (frustrating) situation you’re describing and it’s happened to me, too!
I hope you post pictures of the Waldorf Doll. I’m so curious to hear how it turns out.
Yay for an improved washing machine situation. With young kids, there is A LOT of laundry, so things like this make a big difference.
Lemon bread, that sounds really interesting! Would you mind sharing the recipe?
Thrifty things, hmmm
– my son and husband needed new running shoes, not too thrifty. But they went to a local Runners world and got a 10% because they’re members of a local athletics club.
– I’m going on a weekend away with my daughter with the gymnastics club. Theme: Super Mario. I bought our outfits on Vinted (do you have vinted in Canada?)
– cooked at home
– ordered the bbq for my birthday party (including food +dishes and the pick up the dirty dishes!) via a website where I could use a 5% off code for me and 5% going to the gymnastics club.
I’ll post the recipe soon! It’s delicious <3
Hey, 10% is 10%! It is, as I often say to the kids, "better than nothing!"
I've heard of Vinted, but I don't know if that's just through friends in other places that have it? I've never used it. Will have to look into this!
I don’t do a lot of self care stuff, I guess – but I almost never get my nails done in a salon. I do my toes in the summer because I think my feet look horrible in sandals if I don’t. From a frugal perspective, I’m still patting myself on the back for thrifting most of the dresses in our family portrait. I did buy some chicken breasts that were a fraction of the price they were supposed to be. It was a great deal. I tossed them in the freezer for the next time I need chicken. The calculator deal is amazing. Love that.
Your dresses were stunning and all the gold stars for that!
I adore your frugalness!! The produce on the side of the road is amazing — I’d be right there alongside you given the chance.
I do get regular (monthly) manis/pedis but need care in the middle and gave myself a manicure last night. My nails are fresh. (for now!) and yes, it makes a difference. I love the points/deals for gas—why not?
I’m a big fan of lowering my blinds when the sun is coming in too much; this past year I actually had some of our east facing (morning) windows tinted to help with the heat on that side of our house. I hope it pays off in the near future.
Tinted windows! That’s genius! I know people do it to vehicles but I’d never heard of/thought of doing it within a house.
I love these little frugal wins! I should probably start writing some of these down (for a future post!).
Yeah for the calculator.
I love collecting points that will get me discounts or something else.
I ordered food online yesterday because ist been too busy and I never have the car and I am sick. Most of my cart was reduced items. Yeah.