The Frugal Girl

OCTOBER 31, 2023

For the store brand! Even more surprising: Safeway had a special where if you bought four boxes of their store-brand plain shredded wheat, they were only $1.99 So I bought it at Lidl, and for a while, it was a decent price. But last time I was in, a regular-size box of plain shredded wheat was over $4! That’s kinda surprising.

Frugal 197

Frugal Cat Safeway Dinner 197

The Frugal Girl

SEPTEMBER 11, 2023

Sonia texted me a few weeks back to see if she could have the chest to store some blankets and stuffed animals. As you can see, Sonia has a lot of blankets/stuffed animals to store. ? You can see some “after” pictures of it here, in this tour of Lisey’s room at the other house. The freecycle chest is pretty small.

Storage 206

Storage Painting Freecycle Craigslist 206

The Frugal Girl

OCTOBER 2, 2023

If you’re patient, you can find cheap things that coordinate If you are a stickler for matching, it’s going to be nigh onto impossible to use thrift stores and Buy Nothing groups to find things that were meant to go together. For instance, I have a fair number of white serving dishes that I’ve gotten at thrift stores.

Saving Money 206

Saving Money Money Painting Lamps 206

The Frugal Girl

OCTOBER 6, 2023

What I Spent I spent: $30 at Lidl $16 at the Hispanic grocery store $30 on pizza So, $76 for me this week. I dunno if any of those things in particular helped, or if it was a combo of them all, but I feel a little more equipped for life today than I did yesterday.

Leftovers 195

Leftovers Dinner Chiquita Green And Frugal 195

The Frugal Girl

JANUARY 3, 2024

I put the caulk back, and later that afternoon I went to a local hardware store, this time WITH my wallet, and got a squeeze tube of caulk, mainly because I thought it would be handy to have the resealable tip. So I went to Home Depot, got to the cash register, and discovered they don’t take Apple Pay (I forgot my wallet at home!)

Chiquita 227

Chiquita Painting Home Depot Christmas 227

The Frugal Girl

JANUARY 9, 2024

The grain mill was an investment but if you compare the cost of homemade sourdough bread to store bought loaves of equivalent quality, it’s a huge savings. For example, we’re very accustomed to buying anything we can second-hand at thrift stores, Craigslist, or Facebook Marketplace.

Oregon 188

Oregon Home and Garden Kids and Family Money 188

The Frugal Girl

NOVEMBER 28, 2023

I tried a thrift store first, but came up dry. I tried them on, but I was definitely skinnier in 2012 than I am now because I could barely button these pants, even standing up. God forbid I sit down in them! I don’t get dressed up very often, so my current pants are basically just jeans, leggings, and scrub pants. Then I went to T.J.

Frugal 208

Frugal Office Twinings Thrift Stores 208

The Frugal Girl

OCTOBER 5, 2023

for lovely weather for an outing with Sonia We’d been trying to find a time to go visit some antique stores, and we finally made it happen yesterday! Interestingly, the peppers are purple, but who knows, perhaps they will eventually become red. Regardless, they are beautiful.

Thankful 207

Thankful Hawaii Chiquita Flights 207

The Frugal Girl

NOVEMBER 15, 2023

We will make a dinner that includes dried pasta, a sauce based on canned tomatoes, topped with a sprinkle of store-bought Parmesan cheese and still consider that a from-scratch meal. It’s sort of like how when we say we cook from scratch, we don’t mean that super strictly.

Dinner 236

Dinner Milk Salad Dressing Frozen 236

The Frugal Girl

NOVEMBER 30, 2023

This reminded me of when my kids would play make-believe drive-thru or grocery store games; they always loved to be the bad customer and there was lots of laughing involved then too. I was playing the role of a bad nurse in the skit, and it took a lot of tries for me to get through it without dissolving into giggles.

Thankful 188

Thankful Chiquita Office Goals 188

The Frugal Girl

SEPTEMBER 19, 2023

The buckle was very poorly-designed and would not ever stay in place (which is probably why this skirt ended up at the thrift store in the first place!) We fixed Zoe’s skirt with scissors She’d thrifted this checked skirt, which had a sort of odd belt thing at the bottom.

Frugal 180

Frugal Sewing Thrifting College 180

The Frugal Girl

FEBRUARY 13, 2024

Then I squeeze/pat the brushes/rollers dry and let them air dry before storing them for the next use. After that, I usually soak the roller and brushes in water overnight and then I rinse them. The soak helps to loosen up the paint and it makes the rinsing way easier. Water works just fine and is way way less stinky.

Painting 176

Painting Freecycle Furniture 2005 176

The Frugal Girl

JANUARY 31, 2024

Zoe loves to build Lego kits, and she didn’t have much of a place to store some of her bigger pieces. So, I told her I’d poke around on Facebook Marketplace to see what I could come up with. Eventually, I came across a teal solid wood bookshelf for $25, so I went to pick it up. However, when I got home I was like CRAP!

Lego 198

Lego Painting Re-use Furniture 198

The Frugal Girl

FEBRUARY 18, 2024

When we lived in a bigger city, we had great resale stores for used clothing and toys. I really miss our old secondhand stores with good condition items sorted into specific sizes! Unfortunately, that was not the case after we moved. The prices were not low enough to justify the time and patience required.

Kids and Family 184

Kids and Family Home and Garden Money Frugal 184

The Frugal Girl

SEPTEMBER 13, 2023

Can you freeze glass tomato sauce jars from the store? Also, you know how the grated Parmesan lids work on standard-mouth jars? I’ve frozen those plenty of times too and they’ve been fine. This is probably the most common food-freezing question I get and my answer is yes.

Food 199

Food Freezers Food Waste Re-use 199

The Frugal Girl

AUGUST 23, 2023

Basically, they consist of people noisily arranging food/toiletries/drinks in aesthetically-pleasing storage containers or drawers, rather than storing them in the packaging they came in. Are these people running a convenience store out of their homes? Who actually uses so many repeats of items, especially things like deodorant?

Video 241

Video Food and Drink Chiquita Package 241

The Frugal Girl

MARCH 6, 2024

Now, I regularly stop in at Safeway (decidedly NOT the cheapest grocery store!), I made more things from scratch, I purposely cooked and served cheaper foods, I bought fewer convenience foods, and I worked hard to find the lowest prices possible on what I bought. But at this point in my life, I’m not prioritizing that as highly.

Grocery Spending 188

Grocery Spending Groceries Grocery Sewing 188

The Frugal Girl

DECEMBER 18, 2023

There are many second-hand stores near me. For example: I’m not going to get A because I want to do B. If I buy A, it will take longer. The easiest is saying no to the newest tech. Is there anything unique about being frugal in your area? Which can be a good thing or not. There is not much convenient recycling.

Texas 130

Texas Oregon Recycle Recycled 130

The Frugal Girl

JANUARY 22, 2024

Easiest part of being frugal: Not buying things like junk food at the grocery store. It’s a little like having a superpower, walking by the Starbucks without getting in line, or zooming by the snack aisles in the grocery store (we only buy chips and things like that for special treats). If we want it, let’s buy it.

Rent 180

Rent Son Frugal Home and Garden 180

The Frugal Girl

FEBRUARY 14, 2024

It’s not hard for me (anymore) to avoid expensive stores or fast fashion sites such as Shein and Temu, and instead shop at thrift stores or use my local BuyNothing group. What’s the easiest/hardest part of being frugal? Easiest: Giving up things that don’t align with my personal values.

Friends And Family Sale 190

Friends And Family Sale Library College Cars 190

The Frugal Girl

NOVEMBER 13, 2023

Vanilla cupcakes I stored all my equipment in a dishpan in my dorm room. Eat at grocery stores! In the US, many grocery stores (especially in cities) will have hot or cold bars where you can grab food that can be eaten immediately, or warmed up. Do you have any tips for frugal travel or vacations?

Kids and Family 189

Kids and Family Parenting Cars Car 189

The Frugal Girl

FEBRUARY 20, 2024

I wonder if my store credit is still there.” I think I ordered some rain jackets that didn’t end up fitting, so I returned them and sort of forgot about the whole thing. Well, I have been wanting to buy a pair of slip-on Dr. Martens boots, and I thought, “Oooh, those are probably available on Zappos. ” And it was!

DIY 130

DIY Frugal Zappos Chiquita 130

The Frugal Girl

NOVEMBER 20, 2023

One neighbor took out wooden shelving and put it on the curb and it now is used in our basement to store canned goods. I wash out the condiment containers and use them to store the dry ingredients for my smoothies. Another neighbor put in new sod and didn’t like how his one year old mower cut the grass so he gave the mower to us.

Iowa 166

Iowa Friends And Family Sale Boys Son 166

The Frugal Girl

SEPTEMBER 28, 2023

and I also love that both cables store neatly on the pump itself. That makes it very tidy to store in the middle console in my van. My very old one burnt out last year at some point, so I ordered this Slime pump and man, this thing is so so so much better than my old one.

Thankful 208

Thankful Chiquita Band-Aid Hawaii 208

The Frugal Girl

OCTOBER 16, 2023

But in the grand scheme of things, I have made yogurt probably hundreds of times by now, and given that homemade yogurt is about a quarter of the cost of store-bought, I’ve saved myself many, many, MANY hundreds of dollars. Losing a gallon of milk is nothing in comparison to that.

Frugal 202

Frugal Activism Milk At&T 202

The Frugal Girl

FEBRUARY 5, 2024

things on Buy Nothing first and then thrift stores or Facebook marketplace, so I found a good play kitchen on marketplace when my little wanted one. I really enjoy hearing different perspectives in the comments from different ages, regions, ideologies and other kinds of people that I don’t interact with in real life. I try to get (and give!)

Virginia 183

Virginia Kids and Family Library Frugal 183

The Frugal Girl

MARCH 4, 2024

Try Reny’s, a regional department store chain, for Maine souvenirs instead of pricey gift shops. Disney enthusiasts should check out mousesavers.com and consider shopping with the kids for Disney souvenirs at the local Walmart rather than in the parks. The same is true for Maine.

Green And Frugal 178

Green And Frugal Kids and Family Hotel Frugal 178