Shanamadele’s Coffee Break
Pet Peeve #162Archive for thrifty-goodness
A new view
I just installed a new-to-us monitor that we picked up from a Freecycler. It’s 11 years old, but many times better than the monitor we purchased for $25 a few years ago from Goodwill. Better, in the sense of bigger and with a better picture overall. Our old one was fading — I could barely look at websites with dark backgrounds anymore.
The best part: I can see every detail in photos of my gorgeous boy.
Let’s hear it for the early adopters of new technologies! Long may they put their old, perfectly usable stuff out on the curb.
Bargains, sorta
Went to our friendly neighborhood salvage grocery store this weekend. Mostly, they sell a bunch of expired stuff that no-one really needs, with a smattering of really low-quality basic foods (like jiffy cornbread mix). We stop in every once in a blue moon because it makes me feel thrifty. Every once in a while, there are some gems on their shelves. This trip, we picked up
- a bag of off-brand potato chips ($0.50)
- a box of Earth’s Best cookies ($0.50)
- a box of Annie’s bunny crackers ($1.79)
- 5 pounds of off-brand elbow macaroni ($2.99)
- 14 oz of off-brand, whole grain (but not organic) cereal ($1.79).
Aside from the macaroni, it’s not stuff we usually buy. But, you know, it’s good to have snacks around for The Boy. Plus, at that price, we can hardly make popcorn cheaper than those potato chips. I’m calling it good.
Homemade Fun
It rained all day, and Pumpkin was at work, leaving Mama and Butternut to fend for ourselves.� We did pretty well, thank you very much.
Groceries needed to be bought. By us.� We went to the co-op to pick up bulk foods, since they are typically less expensive than at our chi-chi natural foods grocer.� Butternut discovered the small area with fun toys, and Mama re-discovered the joys of shopping without any distractions.� (Not that there aren’t joys associated with Butternut distractions, but it was a nice change of pace.)
We had a relatively pain-free trip to the chi-chi natural foods grocer. Butternut quickly decided on a sticker at the check-out line.� I am always surprised how quickly he decides and how satisfied he is to have just one.
We returned home, put the groceries away, had lunch and some of us had a nap.� The other one did chores and was about to start making play dough when the napping one awoke.
Thus, we both made play dough.
It was a little messier, and I didn’t get to make a palette of beautiful colors, but I was pleasantly surprised at how well it came out.� Now, we have the equivalent of about four cups of blue, green and red play dough.� It probably cost us all of about $0.35 to make, and it’s hard to calculate time spent doing it, since it was also time spent interacting with my son.� It will probably cost me or Pumpkin 15 minutes of clean up.� It is a little hard to find a price comparison, because I can only find sets online.� But let’s guess it’s about $5 worth of playdo.� Heck, let’s say it cost as much as $0.50 to make.� So, I saved $4.50 for 15 minutes of actual work.� Which works out to $18/hour.� (Had I not spent the time interacting with my son, it probably would have added another 15 minutes of work to the project, although the clean up would have been easier.� But worse case, I’m looking at a net of $9/hour.)
Then, we spent the rest of the afternoon playing with play dough. Which is, as they say, priceless.
Fateful Thrifting
The cosmos was trying to tell me to stay away from the Catlin Gabel School sale this weekend.
The Expo Center charges $7 to park, but those in the know go behind the center and park on the street. Or used to. When I showed up on Friday, I learned that the street parking had been made illegal.
So, I grumpily decided to run some other errands and made
a plan to come back on the last day to snatch up whatever still looked good.
I made a date with my best thrifting pal, ![[info]](http://stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
bikelovejones. But,bikelovejones, much as she loves thrifting, loves biking more and had a long ride the day before that left her without energy to comb through merchandise for the remaining gems.
Well, I was determined to swallow the $7 parking fee, and buy enough merchandise to make it worth my while. I got to the Expo Center with enough time to stand online with my granny cart, but not so much time that I got antsy. I went straight for the toys and snatched up a few things, mostly to put away for Chanukah. I perused a couple of other sections, and I was contemplating buying a piece of luggage and filling it up with clothes for $15 when I barely heard above the din of shoppers my ringing phone.
It was Pumpkin. He didn’t think I needed to cut my shopping trip short, but Butternut had been roughhousing on the couch and had banged his head against the window in the living room and broken it. Butternut was fine, but there was a messed to be coped with.
I can’t say that I sprang into action. I was on a mission, after all. But I slowly came to realize that maybe it would be a good thing if I went home. So, I did. And on the way, I decided that maybe we needed to
What a mess! Really, not much worse than a usual Sunday afternoon at our house, except for a little more chaos in the living room. But it all felt like too much to deal with. Fortunately, Butternut was down for a nap, so we (Pumpkin, mostly) put up cardboard on the window and cleaned up the glass.
Then, we called out the calvary. fawnapril came over and took Butternut for a bike ride while Pumpkin and I rearranged the furniture in our living room. (We have so many interesting books….) Pumpkin wondered out loud if he could take a vacation from being a Papa. I called A and arranged for her to take Butternut for a few hours so Pumpkin could just be Pumpkin for a while.
I think it helped, and I feel really fortunate that we are able to reach out to our friends for help when we need it.
My inner domestic goddess rears her ugly head.
I just put 10 jars of homemade organic squash baby-food in the freezer.
It wasn’t the most cost-productive thing I’ve every made. The squash was only $1, but it took me about an hour of work altogether, and it only saved me about $5. Those would be poverty wages. Some of it was learning curve — next time, I will bake the squash instead of steaming it because separating the squash from the skin will be less time-consuming.
Still, I have a lovely feeling of satisfaction. Plus, I didn’t just create demand for 10 more new glass bottles. I’ll call it good.
