Frugal/Sustainable Friday

 Just a quick note to say that I plan to start posting twice a week , hopefully by next week. Family issues (see below) and other hiccups have affected my blogging time and attention, hopefully just briefly.

The calendar, and the rental office, have reminded me that my time here is approaching two years. Just the other day I got my annual lease renewal notice (with a decent increase, hardly unexpected since they were on hold for months and the cost of services must have skyrocketed in the past year).This morning, I  wandered past my adult child sleeping on the sofa to my patio, diet coke in hand. Sitting there in the sunny quiet, I realized that I have no doubt that this is the perfect place for me, and that there are no regrets two years in. 

His eight thirty flight in the am had cancelations and reschedules meaning bedtime last night was one am!

Those thoughts deserve separate posts on their own, but for now let’s see what frugal (and hopefully sustainable) things I’ve managed in the past week or so:

I like things to match and look pretty. Even things as mundane as hankies and towels for wiping up. I’m also trying to eliminate all paper outside of the bathroom excepting paper towels for grease and such. This week I managed to make some seasonal towels using bright pastel flannel and colored terry cloth, as well as buying pastel floral kitchen dishcloths on sale at Walmart. An upfront cost that is good for the environment and will pay for itself in stuff I don’t have to buy over and over.

I’ve mainly held off on buying any clothing all summer, with the exception of a couple tops on Poshmark. I will need more warm weather clothing, including a few more that are a couple steps up from the “I’m retired and I don’t have to care'' category. But with all the good clothing companies going out of business, and my specific requirements for clothing (brights, no navy or white or black) I am happy to wait for the perfect thing as well as hit the used market.

Speaking of that black and navy thing, I don’t own (or didn’t own) a black or navy or white top or dress, and my sister-in-law’s funeral is Saturday. I do have a navy and white dot long skirt (a photo of which exists on this site somewhere as a stitch fix review), so I grabbed a nice knit white top from Amazon. I have blue and white and silver jewelry and will consider it a tribute to her absolute adoration for the Dallas Cowboys.

While it may be false economy to call this one frugal, I bought a small crossbody Vera Bradley for fifty dollars instead of ninety. I would have been happy to get this at thrift or consignment stores, however they were never available or the same as the sale price.  Vera Bradley (along with the occasional coach wristlet on clearance times four) are the only purses I use and I use them all the time, because pockets, pockets and more pockets.

I’ll pretty obviously never not buy yarn or fabric. But all hobbies have waste and I know well that the growing of cotton and the making of cloth are high water endeavors. Less harmful than synthetics, but still.  The bag includes just part of the scraps after my cutting multiple fall items, which will be sewn together to make other fall sewing projects.  The jeans and the shirts are just a small sampling of what I have been given from my buy nothing group-things that are unusable and would be trashed (no crotch in the jeans, permanent stains on small parts of the shirts), that will now be turned into something else. The shirts will be modern plain pumpkins and the jeans will be cut into Christmas tree ornaments and embroidered.

And finally for today (although I could probably continue the list for a while), I have switched almost all my shopping to Aldi, filling in other store’s loss leaders as needed. They carry most things I need and as a whole I find their prices to be most reasonable over all. Which is the most important as I am not running from place to place at this time in my life.  Besides, I can always use any savings in this area on the Aisle of Shame. This week I am in love with those large bird yard ornaments. Nuff Said.

***** Sometime just before the 4th of July, my younger sister-in-law died in a house fire. At this time I’ll only say that it has been a stressful and shocking and sad time for all. Because it was a house fire of unknown origin (a heating pad that did not shut off we now know), and because she and her husband were recently living apart (separate long term retirement goals among other things), there was, on top of everything else, an autopsy. We’ll finally be having her memorial this weekend, hence my son’s return for a second trip.*****