Category: Intentional Spending

With the recent fence having been put around our yard, I was ready to have some things in our yard that I’ve been resistant to until now because I was concerned about the high likelihood of our yard being used in our absence without permission by neighborhood children who I don’t know.

Last week we bought a very large playset!  It has three regular swings, a rope swing, a trapeze swing, and a large fort area (5′ x 6′) with a ladder leading up to it and a slide coming down from it.  (I’m also planning to buy a toddler swing tomorrow so the littles, ages 1 and 2.5, can swing safely and comfortably without needing to be held on someone’s lap.)  Sets like these are priced at about $3000-4000 new, and used are still about $500-1000.  That was way more than I could spend.

When I saw the ad on CL, the description was accurate but the angle of the picture showed only the fort, not the other features.  I think that people are so visual nowadays and dependent on pictures that it’s the reason this set, priced at only $100, wasn’t snapped up for the amazing deal it was (I saw how fast most inexpensively priced playsets/swing sets were sold).  And that’s why I think I was only the second person to show any interest (the first decided he didn’t want it), and when I showed up in person and offered $80 for it, the seller immediately accepted.  (I had to buy some hardware and lumber that added to the cost, about another $40.)

The owner had built it himself based on a unit built by a well-known (and expensive!) playset company (Rainbow), and he did a fantastic job.  It was very solidly made!  We spent 3 hours taking it apart, and then a lot more hours putting it back together.  A big part of why it took so long to rebuild was that I needed to change the configuration to make the best use of our space, which meant redesigning it a bit.  And we didn’t have pictures or diagrams to assist us in remembering how things were before it was dismantled, which made it more challenging.

My ds16, who is extremely good with building, renovations, etc, found it very frustrating to make structural changes as we were going along to something someone else had built (he has no problem doing it with his own ideas) – we couldn’t make the changes in advance because we weren’t sure which boards went where!  So it meant duplicating our time and effort several times.  Fortunately together we made a good team; he put in the sweat and muscle and I told him what to do.  🙂

Amazingly, this set that was in a huge backyard before we bought it actually fits in my side yard.  Not only does it fit, it fits perfectly there!  Until we fenced the yard in, I thought of my side yard as a sliver of land that was basically big enough to walk from the front yard to the back.  The only thing I had there was a few blueberry bushes along the pathway (which I’ve recently moved since being right next to a swingset is a recipe for a short lived plant!), and a narrow bed of strawberries at one end.

Fencing the yard helped me see that it was actually usable space.  I don’t know if most people would have thought it realistic to put this large a set in so small a space, but it really worked out well.   I’d estimate it’s about 26 feet long, 6 feet deep, with a swing depth of closer to 12′.   I’m amazed that even the older kids can swing pretty high with no restriction, other than to pull their legs in when they go backwards (so they don’t graze the fence).

It was honestly a lot of work, and it’s been a busy time so it felt like even more work than if we had tackled this project at a very quiet time of year.   But it’s so rewarding to have finished it and to watch all of our kids enjoying it. We were able to transform what was basically dead space into a great play area!

Avivah

Today I did my monthly shopping and I felt like sharing some of the blessing that has come my way during this outing – every time I do a major shopping I feel like H-shem (G-d) is sitting on my shoulder making sure to send me just what I need, and today was no exception.

First I went to get free range eggs from a woman I discovered on Craig’s List several months ago.  She usually charges 1.50 a dozen, but I had seen an ad on CL for 1.25 at a time when she had lots to get rid of, so she agreed that’s the price she’d charge me.  Then a month ago they had so many, that she told me if I would buy them all they’d charge me $1 a dozen.  They told me it was worth it for them since: a) it saved them the time and effort of going to sell the eggs at an auction, where they’d also get $1 a dozen, and b) since from the beginning I’d offered to give them egg cartons that I recycled, it saved them having to buy them, so they’d actually make more profit selling to me than the auction, with much less aggravation.  We use a lot of eggs since they are a high quality protein from an ideal source, and at this price they’re very affordable to boot!

Today she had 43 dozen for me, but I only had twenties and she didn’t have change for $60, so she told me to just pay $40 for all of them.  The last couple of times I went, they gave me a dozen ducks eggs free (they only have a couple of ducks and never used them for themselves, but when I mentioned I was interested in trying them just gave them to me!).  They’re very nice people who take great care of their animals, and today I asked her if she’d be interested in having our ducks.  I thought it would be a great home for the ducks and that this family would enjoy them as well, after her husband telling me last month that he bought a bunch of ducks and geese for no reason but because he likes seeing them run around the property.

The kids (I took ds4, dd9, ds11, and dd13) enjoyed seeing the 8 week old puppies (and imploring me to take one home), cows, horses, ducks, geese, ducks, and chickens.  Picking up the eggs would have taken just a short time but we were there for 45 minutes, which was especially nice for ds4, who was very upset that he didn’t get to go to his grandparents with his three brothers (ages 1, 2.5, and 8 ) when we were out shopping.  So it was a personalized, hands-on kind of  ‘farm tour’ and added a lot more interest to his day out with us.

Before I left, she offered me a 50 lb of potatoes for free.  Her husband had bought more than they could use at the auction and they were starting to sprout; she didn’t want them to go to waste but told me most people she knew wouldn’t be willing to consider produce that wasn’t perfect.  I told her that maybe I’d cut off the sprouting eyes to plant – I had a few potato plants that started from my compost pile and last week when I did some digging for the new raised beds accidentally discovered treasure -beautiful red and white potatoes growing right in my yard without any effort on my part!   Now planting those sprouted eyes seems like a worthwhile thing to do (though if I’ll get to it or not will depend on how much time I can find for it)!

Then I went to the store, where I found some great deals!  Firstly, they were giving away tomato starts – I asked why, and they said most people had planted their gardens already and they wanted to clear things away.  I’ve never seen anything like this before.  Since I was so busy with the conference and the older kids’ high school graduation, plus building new raised beds just a couple of weeks ago, I didn’t do nearly the amount of planting from I wanted to earlier in the season, and a couple of days ago was thinking that I’d really lose out on the growing season this year.  And now I was sent about 180 free tomato plants to get me on track!  Yes, you read that number right! Good thing we like tomatoes.  🙂  I also got 3 eggplant starts and 2 peppers starts for $1.  Though it might have been too late for some people, the timing was perfect for me.

Then I got 2 large watermelons for $3, 6 cases of Brown Cow yogurt (2.49 for 12 -1 serving flavored yogurts), and 25 dozen eggs (cage free, hormone free) for .89 each.  (I don’t like to buy all the eggs I need for a month from one person because then they’d have to save them up for me for a while and the eggs would be too old when I bought them.)  I got some other things, like 10 lb of baby limas for .49 lb, and canned tomatoes.  I also got a flat of marigolds ($3) to plant near my vegetables – they’re a natural and attractive insect repellent.  The yogurts will help to make mornings simpler – no one feels like cooking or eating much during summer mornings, and little yogurts like this are a treat.  I was so busy looking at the yogurts that I forgot to buy the organic canteloupe, honeydew, and blackberries that were really good prices.  But since they would have required fridge space I didn’t have, I think it was providential that I ‘happened’ to get distracted.

I also got some delicious raw kombucha – I don’t know if the price was good or not since I’ve never bought it before, but I felt like I needed to have a little something, and when I saw this, knew it would be just the thing. And it really was.

At the next store (only went to 2 today), I picked up my bulk order.  Today I got 30 lb. raisins, 30 lb pecan meal, 30 lb almond meal, and 2-50 lb bags of hard white wheat.  I couldn’t believe it when my dd told me last week that we were almost out of wheat!  Since November when I started reducing our grain intake, I haven’t replenished most of the grains that I had in the pantry, and didn’t really notice things running down – I used to always have plenty of wheat on hand. I’ve been using a lot more nut meals in baking, but I was aware of how fast I was going through those so there was no surprise factor.

Usually I like to be sure my fridge and freezer are fairly empty before I go shopping, but despite my efforts for the last two weeks, nothing I did seemed to make a dent in what we had.  Part of that is that our side by side fridge that we got several months ago really isn’t space efficient (even though it’s several inches wider than our previous fridge), so no matter what I do it seems there’s not enough room for much more than some leftovers and a moderate amount of fruits/vegetables.  And the other thing is that my freezer is an ancient manual defrost model – I came home from the conference a week and a half ago to find the door half open, and a layer of ice over 5 inches thick encasing everything!  So I couldn’t easily get things out that I wanted to use and didn’t have time to hack away at the ice with a sledgehammer.  The freezer now seems a lot more full than it is, and until it gets a major defrosting, nothing more will fit in.

So I was really limited by how much I could buy of perishables, but H-shem knew what I needed and didn’t send me the temptation of amazing prices on things I wouldn’t be able to store.   I did get a case of cream cheese (.59 for 8 oz, and there were 36 in the case, so 13 lb – it’s a very compact box) and several flats of 8 oz sour cream containers (.59 each), and two cases of blueberries (ie 24 pints – each case was $15). Blueberries and sour cream make a lovely lunch!  The only other thing I got that needed refrigeration were (3) 3 lb bags of broccoli for 1.99 each.

My dh has been eating according to the GAPS diet for several months now, and one of his staples is butternut squash.  I was thinking this morning before I left that I wanted to be sure to look for things he could eat, and I was delighted to find 6 large butternut squash for 1.49 each, and then a lot more mid sized butternut squash priced at .50 each!   And something nice about winter squash like these is that they don’t require refrigeration, so they stay well stored in  box in the basement.  In this same store I bought brown rice in the bulk section for .57 lb – some of the bags were marked .59 lb, but if you can pay less by paying attention to what packages you buy, why pay even .02 more per pound for the same product?

I also bought a huge turtle cheesecake for ds16’s upcoming birthday.  I was debating about if I should since I don’t exactly find the ingredient list to be healthful and we could easily make it from scratch, but his favorite dessert is cheesecake and I knew this would be something he’d appreciate on his birthday.  The cheesecake was almost 7 lb so there will be plenty for everyone, and the price was only 5.99.

I always come home from these trips pretty tired – but so grateful for all the abundance that comes our way, at just the right times!

Avivah

Now that our new privacy fence is up, I’d like to put up a good quality swing set for the kids.  On Monday evening we purchased a used one from someone on Craigs List who made his tools available to take it apart (and was really a pleasure to deal with).  But in order to put it back together at home, I needed to buy a new ratchet set, since the one we have is too small for the bolt sizes of the swing set.

When I headed into Home Depot yesterday, I noticed that the packaging for the set I wanted was open, though all of the pieces were there.  So I asked an associate what the discount would be if I purchased it.  I was told I could get it for 20% off of the listed price since all of the pieces were there.  Whether that sounds significant or not, the fact is I would have discarded the packaging as soon as we got home, so I essentially earned several dollars for what would have gone directly into the garbage in any case.

If you’re at a store and see something has been opened or damaged, ask a manager what discount you’ll receive if you purchase it.  Sometimes you’ll be told there’s no discount (the Walmart here stopped discounting opened packaging since apparently people were purposely opening items so they could claim it was damaged and get a discount 🙁 ), but often it will be worth the 20 seconds it takes you to ask the question.

Along the same lines, when you’re buying something used, it’s often appropriate to make an offer that is below the listed price.  The swing set we went to look at was listed at $100, but I asked the seller if he was flexible on the price, and offered $80, which he immediately accepted.  $100 was the total amount I had allotted to purchasing a swing set, and I knew that I’d need to buy more supplies (new screws, some replacement boards), which would bring up the total price.  I also had seen similar swing sets listed for about $75, so my offer seemed to me to be reflective of fair market value.

If you were to compare how these savings stack up if they would be based on an hourly rate, it helps put into perspective the savings value of just one question!  Of course, how much you save in each instance will differ, but in this case, $20 saved with a thirty second question equals $240 an hour.  Not bad, is it?!

Avivah

Yes, this is what I was recently told – and I considered it a compliment!

I popped into our local kosher supermarket for some chicken and vegetables on Thursday evening.  I loaded up on turkey wings since they were .79 lb (that’s the kind of price I don’t often see!), and got a bunch of fresh vegetables for Shabbos salads (naturally the ones that were a good deal).  I was in the checkout line following a friend who said she needed to be more frugal and could use my tips, so I laughed and pointed to my stuff on the conveyor belt, and said: “Here’s my frugal tip of the day – buy lots of what’s cheap!”  😆

The cashier heard us and then took a look at what I had, and started estimating out loud how much my order was before he even finished checking out my friend!  When he finished ringing up my order, he looked at the total and said, “That’s awesome!  It’s even less than I was guessing.  You’re not a member of the (name of store) club!”  So naturally I asked him what that meant.

He said that he’s noticed that shoppers fall into four categories: those who spend a) $100, b) $300, c) $700, and d) $1000 (though he said this usually only happens around major Jewish holidays) for each shopping trip.  And since my full cart of food came out to less than $100, I’m not a member of the club.  Boo hoo.  🙂 I told him that I infrequently top $100 and only can spend $300 at a time in that store before Pesach (Passover) (since it includes my hand matzos)- which may be a total joke to some people, but that’s my notably big shopping trip there.

Personally I was more interested in how frequently most people are shopping, because it’s less relevant how much you spend than each time than how long a time you’re buying for.   When I do my monthly shopping, I spend a lot, basically my entire month’s budget in a day less $50 – 100.  Even after shopping like this for so long, I still am taken aback when I come out of the stores and think about how much I just spent.  Someone could look at me and think I’m a big spender and someone spending just $50 look like the frugal person, but I’m shopping for 4 – 6 weeks of supplies and if the $50 person is a typical shopper, they’re back in the store 2 – 3 times a week.  And that would add up fast.

In case you were wondering, the turkey wings can be useful in a number of ways – roasted as is, stewed, chopped for turkey salad and pot pies – and you can use the bones and carcasses as a base for your stock as a nice bonus.  They were very tasty for Shabbos lunch as turkey salad – I cooked a very large amount and then chopped it all into evenly diced pieces, then froze half so all I’ll need to do next week is defrost and add seasonings.  I actually enjoy cooking with inexpensive ingredients so much more than expensive ingredients – it’s like buying clothes at a thrift store – you’re just not as invested if something goes wrong, and when something goes right, you’ve gotten way more value than what you paid.

Avivah

I prepared a Mother’s Day gift that was so easy but so nice that I wanted to share it with you. And it was really frugal, too.  🙂

I got this idea from Craig’s List – someone was advertising a window herb garden for Mother’s Day.  It occurred to me that I could make my own, and since my mother doesn’t have a yard and just a few days ago told me her attempt last year to grow microgreens failed, I think she’ll really appreciate it!

I took a window garden box that I already had (we got this for free when the kids found someone had put out a pile of several brand new gardening items with tags still on for give away in the alley), and decided to fill it with four different herbs.  I didn’t think that I could fit more than that.  I dug up oregano, sage, and chives from my garden (the chives are flowering and look especially pretty right now).  I bought two lavender plants three weeks ago that I hadn’t yet put into my yard, and decided to put one in my mother’s herb garden – it’s not edible, but it smells so nice and looks attractive so it will be a pleasant addition.  I have basil seeds but since I wanted to give her plants that were already heartily growing, I didn’t include that.

I planted it so that the tall and short plants were alternated – oregano, then sage, then chives, and then lavender.  All of these plants look attractive on their own, but together lined up in this way they visually enhance one another.  I prepared this several days in advance since plants that are transplanted sometimes experience stress and I wanted them to have a chance to get used to their new home and perk up before giving it to my mother.

My only cost were the lavender and sage plants (since I had chives and oregano in the garden), which I paid .50 cents each for, and the Mother’s Day helium balloon ($1 at the dollar store) to tie onto the box itself to make it look more festive.  So $2 and less than a half hour spent to put it all together!  This is a nice gift for someone who enjoys plants but doesn’t have time, space, or energy to grow their own – all they need is a window with some sun, and they can continue to enjoy having fresh herbs for months!  (And these plants reseed themselves and will come back on their own next year.)

(This post is part of Thrifty Thursday, Frugal Fridays and Make it From Scratch.)

Avivah