THE FRUGAL CHALLENGE

There is a line in a 90’s song by Semisonic called “Closing Time” that “every new beginning comes from some other beginning’s end”.

As one year comes to a close and another one looms on the horizon, that line especially rings true as the New Year comes closer and closer.

Recently, Old Mother Frugal was reminded of New Year’s Eve’s that were spent in Times Square. Back when my feet and hands could better tolerate cold weather and three layers of clothing.

Then I began to reminisce about other frugal activities that I used to do but have not done over the years. Instead of buying blankets and quilts, I’d make my own with knitting needles or a crochet hook or scraps of fabric.

I was an avid reader until my college days, when my joy of reading was replaced by endless hours of studying everything that I read. When Mother’s Little Helpers arrived, reading for pleasure morphed into children’s stories with as few words on a page as possible.

Jigsaw puzzles were another source of frugal entertainment as one puzzle can last for days, weeks and sometimes months. Although they can be expensive to purchase as new, that is my guilty pleasure. Thrift store puzzles typically lacked an essential piece. There was nothing more frustrating than spending countless hours poring over 1000 puzzle pieces and having only 999 of them.

Twelve months ago, the year was a new beginning coming from the end of another. How quickly the New Year will be here with the ending of that new beginning. Here is to new beginnings… and a 1000 piece jigsaw puzzle for the upcoming year!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Resolve to establish one frugal thing to do in the New Year. Maybe it’s an old frugal thing that you let slide and need to jump back on board with or maybe establish a new frugal thing to do. Take the “frugal challenge” for yourself or with a friend or embrace the entire family.

 

 

BELLY UP TO THE BAR

They say one person’s trash is another person’s treasure.

There may be some truth to that as on waste disposal day, there seems to be a truck driving around, picking up trash as though to convert it to a treasure. He’s a friendly guy, waving to those walking the neighborhood for reasons other than treasure hunting.

Old Mother Frugal does confess to eyeing these treasures left along the side of the road for trash day as well. A very talented family member has an eye for these types of treasures too. With a little TLC and DIY elbow grease, trash can successfully convert to a treasure.

When the Mother’s Little Helpers were young, I would frequent garage/tag/yard sales for Christmas items for under the tree. Sports equipment, a board game here and there in excellent condition, was an economical treasure find.

Then two Goodwill Stores opened nearby and this added to my places of treasure hunting. They became the “go to” place for wood furniture.

Most recently, our household acquired four bar stools that were reclaimed from a Goodwill store. They were in good shape but had potential for greatness!

Having loaded up the cart, the next stop was the bed linen section of the store in search for a sheet or tablecloth to recover the swivel cushions. Not one, but three choices!

The choices were narrowed down to an ivory sheet, a grey sheet and a black tablecloth. The tablecloth had the greatest potential to revive the appearance of the seat cushions.

Originally, these four swivel- stools would have cost well over $200 as the price tags were still glued underneath the cushions. Old Mother Frugal’s total out of pocket for the four chairs plus cloth covering for seat cushions…$45.

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: A can of spray paint or a bottle of Old English Furniture polish is a great, economical way to bring new life to old furniture!

 

MY TWO CENTS

When the Mother’s Little Helpers were youngsters, Old Mother Frugal was always ready with two cents of advice. Most of the time it was unsolicited advice but that was not a deterrent.

Youngsters became teenagers and still the unsolicited advice continued, offering two cents worth on a variety of topics and issues.

Along the way, it became clear that advice was not always the answer. Sometimes, silence went further than advice. Sometimes it made more “sense” to listen than offer two cents.

Imparting advice on saving money was part of the repertoire. Life throws curveballs and one never knows what financial crisis looms ahead. A text message isn’t going to come along that announces “financial crisis coming on Monday”.

That is why stockpiling is important. To get most for your money, buying sale items means your money will go farther.

Before companies began to shrink their products, laundry detergent would wash 40 loads of laundry. Due to product shrinkage, now 32 loads of laundry are washed for the same price. Fortunately, Old Mother Frugal’s laundry room has several months of 40 loads of laundry detergent.

Recently, a retail drug store chain advertised 18-pack laundry detergent “2 for $4.00”. There was a coupon for $2 off 2 packs and thus began a new stockpile.

Upon checking out at the register, reward points were available on the customer loyalty card; two packs cost a total of 28 cents. The regular retail price was $5.99 each. With additional coupons, I was able to purchase additional 18-packs for $1 each. Now you have my [unsolicited] two cents on stockpiling!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Pull yourself away from your favorite “brand” product and find additional savings in your wallet. A sale usually lasts a week long although the “3-day sale” seems to be popular too. It may be worth trying a different “brand” product and if you like it, return to the store before the sale is over to purchase additional items of that product. It’s not a good deal if you are not happy with the quality, so try it before you decide if you like it!

 

BEFORE PRODUCT SHRINKAGE

 

 

 

LAUNDRY DETERGENT STOCKPILE

 

THE FRUGAL TRAVELER

Last month, Old Mother Frugal had the chance to spend a week at the home of one of Mother’s Little Helpers.  Travel- buddy hubby had departed several days in advance with his one duffle bag and back-pack.

He excels at frugal packing…me, not so much.

There is my one duffle bag “equivalent” for the daytime and bedtime articles of clothing.

This is accompanied by the one bag of personal hygiene and make-up items inserted into the canvas bag of ridiculously restrictive culinary items as prescribed by my physician, along with magazines, book, spiral notebook, plastic cutlery, paper cups and an assortment of my favorite tea bags. Decaf, of course.

If one counts the bag within a bag, the total sits at three. But there is more. Bag number four. Back-pack bag contains laptop, heating pad and chargers. One for the laptop, one for the phone.

Add a purse and the car would be ready to roll except for bag number six. The little pink cooler. It’s the last item in the car because it contains items from the freezer and refrigerator for my travels.

To contain costs while vacationing, I sometimes travel with food items that I can transform into meals at my destination, spending as little money as possible on food. Welcome to my version of "Meals on Wheels".

The destination refrigerator for this trip contains a working light bulb, milk, eggs, orange juice, condiments, cheese and beer. The freezer contains ice cubes, ice-cream, French fries and chicken nuggets. Plenty of room for chicken, pork chops, turkey parts, ground beef and spaghetti sauce!

With all six bags packed, the car was ready to go to meet my travel-buddy hubby and Mother’s Little Helper. There may be a New Year's Resolution in here somewhere!

SOUND THE BULGE! Today’s tip: Eating locally when on vacation is part of travel experience. To keep costs down, save your food dollars for one meal per day, lunch or dinner. Stay at a hotel that offers free breakfast with your stay or bring cold breakfast food items. Pack picnic lunches and drinks. If you need to free up space, shop locally. It is still more economical than dining out with the family for each meal of the day.

                                                     LITTLE PINK COOLER

 

 

SIX TRAVEL BAGS

                        
                                                  ALTERNATE GREEN COOLER

 

LARGER REPLACEMENT CANVAS BAG

 

SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS

Part of the frugal skillset is the ability to find multi-purpose for one item.

Old sheets can be transformed into valences for windows or the backing of a quilt. When fabric is required, sometimes a sheet can be less expensive to use than a cloth purchase from a chain fabric store.

Sometimes the opposite holds true. Sometimes fabric makes for some good bed linens, pillow cases in particular.

When Mother’s Little Helpers were young, Old Mother Frugal would make their pillow cases. A few of these pillow cases still exist today, albeit they are about 25 years old but still in good condition, as in they have not fallen apart in the wash!

It all began with a birthday party for the youngest of Mother’s Little Helpers. Coming up with theme parties was not always an easy task and this was long before there was PINTEREST.

One of the party games was a pillow sack race but pillow cases were so expensive to be used by preschoolers to hop and jump around in. Equally challenging to creating a party theme was the all-illusive ‘goody bag’.

The pillow case solved a multitude of party problems. It was both party game and goody bag!  What an ingenious idea from someone without a creative bone in her body. I found remnants of fabrics in the sewing department. Remnants are less expensive than fabric sold “by the yard”.

The wilder and brighter the print, the happier the party-goers would be. In the span of a morning, half dozen pillow cases were sewn on my sewing machine. In the span of an afternoon, little preschoolers enjoyed hopping, jumping, giggling and racing their way to the finish line. Somewhere in the background was an Old Mother Frugal hopping, jumping and giggling that the party was a success!

SOUND THE BUGLE! Fabric remnants come in all sizes and it could be cost effective to use a remnant in place of a piece of fabric cut from a bolt on the store shelf. A frugal source of fabric is Goodwill (sheets, tablecloths, remnants) stores or any thrift shop. It may take some hunting to find what you are looking for but the treasure of savings may be worth the hunt!

 

TUNNEL VISION

Several years ago, Old Mother Frugal began having problems with vision. It began as glasses with a single lens but quickly evolved to multi-focal lens without a stop-over at bifocals.

Glasses created a sense of tunnel vision. Seeing straight ahead took practice and there was a loss of peripheral vision. It caused me to miss some things or to completely turn my head to view something in my line of sight.

Recently, I spent a week at the home of one of Mother’s Little Helpers. I packed my pink cooler bag with groceries from my freezer and relied on local stores to supplement my food items for the week.

While shopping, I found a bag of frozen vegetables called “California Blend”.

It was a 24 oz bag for $1.00 of frozen broccoli, cauliflower and carrots at Dollar Tree. Dinner that night was pork fried rice and all I needed were carrots. So, I bought the medley of vegetables for $1.00.

Upon arriving back to the house, I separated the vegetables into their own Ziploc bags using only the carrots for my fried rice dinner and freezing the cauliflower and broccoli.

This turned out so well that I will visit my local Dollar Tree for bags of “California Blend” frozen vegetables. The 24 oz bag is larger and more economical than the 10oz or 16 oz boxes sold by the name-brand vegetable manufacturers. I can sort similar vegetables into their own freezer bags and use as needed.

SOUND THE BUGLE! Today’s tip: Looking at a food item such as a vegetable medley is a great way to use what you need and not overbuy an item that you don’t need. Avoid tunnel vision when shopping and try this tip to get the most for your money!