Well, friends, I am back after another Quiet Time. To be honest (and I don’t say this to guilt you), I stopped posting because I felt like I was just screaming into the void and nobody was there to hear me. When I took a pause in posting, that was really bothering me, but now I feel like, who cares if nobody is here to hear me? I love this little blog. I love sharing ideas for frugal vegetarian cuisine. I love sharing money-saving tips. And – I know you’re out there – I love YOU! So here I am, back with a renewed heart and, I like to think, renewed vigor.

On with some frugal wins … and, sadly, a fail … from the past week of life.

1. We switched to Verizon Fios!
At long last – after more than 25 years, in fact – we at Chez Recessionista have ended our toxic relationship with Xfinity (aka Comcast). For decades we stuck with them – brand loyalty, I guess – but over the past few years their quality of service has declined and degraded so badly that it was beginning to inhibit our daily lives, including our work. And when, two Fridays ago, the Internet (and thus the streaming services) cut out in the middle of Artemis II landing coverage, well, that was the last straw. I ordered Verizon Fios at once, and it was installed last week. It’s been smooth sailing ever since – at half the price, I might add!

2. Business is booming over in my eBay store.
Springtime must have perked up my prospective buyers, because all of the sudden my store is getting some traffic! Several months ago my mother sent up two huge boxes of shoes and handbags she’d decluttered for me to resell, and let me just tell you, the woman has class. As a result, my eBay store has never looked more stylish. This week alone, four items have left the house – and payment has flowed in!

3. We took public transportation instead of Uber.
Admittedly, LeeLee and I had gotten a little bit lax in the rideshare department, ordering an Uber for any old time we wanted to go into the District to see a show or have dinner. Well, in our newly minted austerity period, that has ceased, and instead we are back to the good old Metro system, which I really do love. I’m still riding for free on my stash of work-funded Metro dollars from ages ago, and on our bus ride the other day we were delighted to learn we were getting a gratis ride there as well, as the scanner wasn’t working and the bus driver just waved us on anyway. Double savings!

4. We’re using up old beers and pantry staples on hand.
In looking at our beer stash recently, I realized with delight that I had perhaps overbought during the holiday season (I have a soft spot for Christmas ales). Well, Christmas in April is here, because I refuse to 1) let those beers go to waste and also 2) buy new beers until these are all gone! We’re having a good time re-sampling all our old favorites, though, so it’s no hardship here. And we pair them with meals fashioned from pantry staples we’ve already bought, so that’s double the savings!

5. And, finally, a frugal fail.
Now, I love to tout my wins, but I am an honest person and must disclose when I have erred. And, gentle reader, I have erred. LeeLee and I have an international trip coming up in a few months, and usually I purchase airfare eons in advance. This time I didn’t, instead opting to see how the fares might fluctuate when we got closer to time. Admittedly, I was hoping they would fluctuate downward, but if you’ve been paying any attention to world events at all, you will see that was not to be. So finally I cut my losses and made my purchase. It wasn’t a bargain-basement price, but if I can avoid the eventual penthouse of prices, I’ll be happy.

What frugal wins (or fails!) have YOU encountered this week? Let us know in the comments!

:) 

From tailgates to tortilla chips, it’s been a fairly frugal week! Here’s what’s been cooking (as it were).

1. We were invited to a tailgate party before the Virginia-Florida State football game!
LeeLee and I traveled down to Charlottesville, Va., to watch Florida State play the University of Virginia last Friday, and like any good football fans we were in deep need of a tailgate. Blessedly, one of my dearest friends in the world lives in Charlottesville, and she and her sweetheart invited us to a tailgate one of their friends was hosting right near Scott Stadium! While I hate going empty-handed to events like this – I am a Southerner, after all – since we had no means of food preparation, our wonderful friends brought enough to “count” for us and we all feasted and had a fine old time. Granted, some of the cherry peppers on the skewers were a bit … well, incendiary. But we were all up to the task! (Thank you again, Erin and Sean, for inviting us along!)

2. I scored a free order of tortilla chips at District Taco.
When we arrived home from Charlottesville, I had no interest in cooking. So I hit the Easy button and put in an order at our local District Taco. Lo and behold, the app informed me I had a free order of chips and salsa waiting for me! Yes, PLEASE. This little maneuver saved a good $5 on my final order and was much enjoyed in our household.

3. The Leftover Revolution continues!
Now, I’ve waxed poetic for more than a year about our Leftover Revolution, and I must tell you I’ve been especially proud of this week’s installment. From Saturday’s chik’n divan stretching out across several more meals to leftover burgers from Sunday’s cookout becoming both protein in a salad AND the foundation of another sandwich, it has been a very leftover-friendly week around Chez Recessionista! And let’s not even get into the swallow of wine we had left over from a bottle from the weekend, which I enjoyed Monday evening while LeeLee was away, just because. (Sorry, LeeLee.)

4. I’m continuing to scan my receipts into Fetch.
I know this isn’t the most lucrative of frugal things, but it doesn’t take but a second, and those points eventually add up to Starbucks gift cards for yours truly!

5. We canceled LeeLee’s Amazon Prime … which was kind of a frugal fail.
Now, this frugal thing falls into the fail, then win, then fail, then win category. Unbeknownst to me, somehow EONS ago he’d gotten signed up for Amazon Prime – even though we already had a Prime account under my name! And for literal years, since it was a monthly charge, it slipped under the radar at $14.99 a month, as I’d see the charge and just assume it was my own Prime account. Well, once I canceled my Prime and the charges kept coming, we looked under the hood and found he somehow had an account too. So we canceled it a month ago … only to find another charge arrive last night! It turns out that there’s one more little tiny Cancel button you have to press AFTER Prime makes it sound like you’ve canceled, and we’d missed it the first time. We did NOT miss it the second, and Prime refunded our last payment. Incidentally, there’s a class action lawsuit for this right now, which I will definitely be joining! I am furious. 

What frugal wins – or win/fails – did you accomplish this week? Let’s hear it in the comments!

:)

Well, look at me, back from the blogging abyss! 

Longtime readers here know that I behave this way sometimes. Sometimes, when the pressures of work and life collide (and boy have they this year!), I need to take a step back, reduce obligations where I can, and … breathe.

Well, I’ve breathed, and the pressures remain, so I may as well plug back in here. I’ve missed you!

Why not get started again with Five Frugal Things? Here’s what I’ve been tackling over the past couple of weeks or so.

1. We canceled Amazon Prime!
Finally, the deed is done! We haven’t bought a single item from Prime since March – and even then our purchases had been sparse since late January (ahem) – and once we finished the series we were watching on Prime Video (“The Bob Newhart Show,” if you must know), I hit the Cancel button. Our subscription lapses this week, and I couldn’t be more pleased! I’ve saved a bunch of money not panic-buying random things from Amazon, too.

2. I bought my annual “Cheap Baseball Hooky Day” seat and got a beer for pennies on the dollar.
Like last year, I hunted down an inexpensive (but very good!) seat at Nationals Park for a 1:05 day game against the Braves and plunked down for an afternoon of playing hooky (with my boss’s knowledge, ahem) and good old-fashioned baseball. I had a coupon in my digital wallet for $15 off at concessions, so parlayed that into the majority of a beer purchase and ended up paying $7 (most of that was the tip) for a nice local DC beer! The Nationals lost, but me being a Braves fan too, I felt like a winner in any outcome.

3. We’ve been eating down the pantry – again!
After my monthly Costco runs, I often find myself supplied with staples once more, and between that and the random sale items I pick up for the fridge and freezer, I’ve usually got all the fixings I need for some fun (and occasionally quite creative) meals. I was positively elated when I realized this week that I still had a four-pack of Beyond Cajun sausage in the freezer – it elevated our usual Instant Pot red beans and rice to new heights!

4. I scored a free work lunch!
One of my colleagues was visiting from another city, and our team went out to lunch to welcome her and catch up. I wasn’t intending for the check to be picked up by somebody else, but it was, and I am so grateful! 

5. My eBay sales are slow but steady.
Over the past couple of months I’ve begun to list items on eBay again, trying to price them fairly while also working to make a little bit of a profit. While this is certainly not a fulltime job, my little odds and ends have brought in about $100 a month for the past few months, which is better than a poke in the eye!

What frugalities have you been up to in my absence? Let’s hear it in the comments!

:) 

Last year was a “pivot and recover” year for ol’ LeeLee and me. As I mentioned nearly a year ago now, LeeLee had lost one of his streams of income last spring (as a contractor, this does happen from time to time I’m sorry to say), so we pivoted, and pivoted quickly, reducing spending where we could and just generally tightening the belt overall.

This year, LeeLee and I have blessedly emerged from that time (I am inclined to add “for now,” as I know things can change on a dime!), but neither of us is all that enthusiastic about cranking our spending up at the moment given the tenuous national economic situation. So instead, we are saving – and paying down debts, some of which are car-note-related, some others of which we incurred while we were trying to right the ship last year.

But saving can get a bit dull once one is back into it full bore, day after day. Oh, sure, it’s the right thing to do, and we’ll thank ourselves in the end, but as the days wear on it’s easy to lose focus.

Enter: Our Whys.

Having a Why – or two, or three – makes it so much easier to keep on saving week after week. And when I say “Why,” I don’t mean the things we ALL save for – an emergency fund, retirement, all that good stuff. What I really mean are the things that make living fun. Do you like going to concerts? Fancy guitar equipment? Fancy car detailing? Going out to dinner? Travel? A cool pen? Splurging on your cats? These are all perfectly acceptable Whys to help keep you focused.

For LeeLee and me, one of our big Whys is travel. In fact, long ago we created a separate savings account, labeled it Vacation, and contribute to it every pay period. Watching that savings account grow keeps our eye on the prize – the more it grows, the more comfortable we are about taking a, well, vacation.

Another of our big Whys is going out to concerts and theater. While we don’t have a separate account for this the way we do for our travel fund, we use this passion as a test to pit other potential expenditures up against. Would we rather pay for this $50 out, or shall we eat at home for $15 and bank the rest to use for a show next month? Once we put things in that perspective, the answer to where our heart lies becomes quite clear.

Let’s face it: Saving can get a little bit dull, even though it’s the right thing to do. Add a bit of pizzazz to the proceedings with some Whys and you’ll stay on track!

What are your Whys? Let’s hear about it in the comments!

:)

Free human and bird food, low-cost gas, and a frugal fail? It’s been a busy week, y’all. Here’s what’s been cooking.

1. We got two-for-one bags of birdseed at Ace.
Tis the season for feeding the birds (isn’t it ALWAYS that season?), and while I usually go to my favorite local wild-bird-supply shop, last weekend I was in a bind and needed some birdseed ASAP. So I popped over to my local Ace – just four blocks away – and snapped some up. But lo! The birdseed bags were two for one! My heart sang with joy and I grabbed two – which made the walk home a bit heavier than anticipated, but was definitely worth it! And the birds are happy, too.

2. I received a free meal at a volunteer appreciation dinner!
Last week was Volunteer Appreciation Week, and the animal shelter where I volunteer very graciously hosted a volunteer appreciation party for us. The fellowship was wonderful enough, but the free food and drink were the icing on the cake! Even better: There was enough on offer to make a meal out of it, and I sauntered home several hours later fat and happy. (Secondary Frugal Thing: I walked and/or scootered to and from, saving money and the environment!)

3. LeeLee got 90 cents off per gallon on gas.
I learned last week that our Safeway rewards program at our local Exxon is ending on April 30, but as it happened LeeLee’s gas tank was on E this weekend as we prepared to go somewhere in his car. So on our way out of town, we popped by the local Exxon, entered our Safeway number, and voila! We’d earned 90 cents off per gallon of gas. I’ll miss this rewards program, but this was a great way to tie up loose ends! (And we may still pop by once more by April 30, just to top off the tank for cheap.)

4. The Leftover Revolution continues.
We are continuing to enjoy the largesse of our weekly leftovers! From leftover pizza (enough to eat and enough to freeze) to leftover Chinese to lunch fixings galore, we’re certainly not starving in our quest to lower our grocery budget. Frugality has never been tastier!

5. Finally, a frugal fail: I got a parking ticket. :( 
All good things must come to an end, and Number 5 on our list is that end. As it happens, I have neglected to update my state inspection sticker on my car and it is … well, let’s say many months out of date. To be honest, I didn’t think this was something anybody really looked at, but one overeager parking enforcement officer must have had nothing better to do, because I returned to my car after my morning workout (where I’d parked on the street) to find a bright orange ticket on the windshield. The ticket is $40, and best believe I will pay it right away! (I suppose I’ll also go get my car inspected, too, even though I think it’s a racket.)

:)

From a relatively frugal New York getaway to receipts, succulents and Chinese takeout galore, it’s been a money-saving week! Here’s what we’ve been up to.

1. We packed a picnic for our train trip to New York!
One of the first things you should know about me is that I do love a picnic. Whether we’re going to see an outdoor movie, lounging in the park, taking in a summertime concert, or just enjoying an al fresco meal for no reason, I will find any excuse to picnic. So naturally, when I realized our train journey to New York City for a little weekend getaway fell over the dinner hour, I whipped us up some sandwiches, threw some Pringles together, added in some little cookies LeeLee had brought home from an event the night before, and off we went! The only thing missing was a beverage, but we supplemented with a tiny bottle of wine from the Amtrak cafe car. Bliss!

2. While in New York, we visited the TKTS booth for discounted Broadway tickets.
Now, I’ll grant you that New York is not the cheapest vacation destination, but as I said in my Tuesday post this week, there are plenty of ways to save money while having a great time. The TKTS booth in Times Square (there’s another at Lincoln Center!) is a must-do if you want to get great Broadway seats at a deep discount (often upwards of 50% off). That’s just what we did on Saturday, lining up around 10:15 a.m. to await the booth opening at 11. And our patience was rewarded: We booked two third-row seats to “The Last Five Years” (starring Nick Jonas and Adrienne Warren) for half price! The show was amazing and I highly recommend it. 

3. We stretched our weekly Chinese takeout to two meals.
Lately, LeeLee and I have redoubled our efforts to lose a few pesky pounds, so we’re always looking for ways to control our portions. Turns out our Chinese takeout meals – which we had been eating in one sitting – really provide enough food for two dinners! Even with tip, the whole bill comes to about $38, so this wasn’t a terribly expensive order as it is. But divided four ways, we’re eating each meal for about $9.50, which is a steal in this economy. And if it helps us shed the weight, I’m all for that, too.

4. I’ve continued to scan grocery receipts into the Fetch app.
This is lower gain but minimal pain, so I keep scanning every receipt I can find (including a CVS receipt from an emergency hairbrush run in New York!). I’m continuing to bank points to build up our Starbucks coffers for our summertime beach vacation – it’s such a fun little treat!

5. LeeLee brought home a gifted succulent, which I then put into a free flowerpot!
The same event where LeeLee got the cookies also netted us a cute little succulent plant! I repotted it into a cute little orange-cat flowerpot I’d procured from my Buy Nothing group and plunked it onto my kitchen windowsill, where it makes me smile every day. We could all stand a smile at the moment!

What frugal wins (or foibles) have you chalked up this week? Let us know in the comments!

:)