Rewards programs FTW!

by


(Happy Throwback Thursday! Yeah, I’m a day late. Time for an update because I’ve joined a few more rewards programs since this piece was originally published on June 11, 2021. Rewards programs have been a huge help to me: for gifts, for household items and for donations to those in need.)

Recently DF tore down the old woodshed next to the house. He’d long planned to replace it and in fact had the roofing materials all picked out: metal, so that in the spring and summer we could fall asleep listening to the sound of the rain hitting the roof.

This was the year, and it took him just part of a day to disassemble the thing. It would have been much faster to hit it with a pickax and crowbar, but he couldn’t rip and roar because the “new” shed would use parts of the old one.

More of it than he thought turned out to be usable, so all we had to buy was a couple of treated 2x6s, some special screws and, of course, that metal roofing.

I covered those purchases by cashing in at least $135 worth (lost count at some point) of Lowe’s gift cards from several different rewards programs. So many rewards, in fact, that we were able to buy some more potting soil as well.

Rewards programs for the win! Cheapest rehab ever.

I know I talk about rewards programs a lot, but that’s because they work. They earn us free household items, food, gifts and garden supplies. Which is why I think everyone should at least take a look at these programs. 

Read more

5 money tips from “Jurassic World Rebirth”

by

My niece and I dropped in on Cinemark’s “Secret Movie Series” screening the other day. Each month the chain* does a $5 top-secret screening of an upcoming film. The only thing you know going in is the film’s rating – not even a hint of the genre. When I left the house I said to DF, “Wouldn’t it be fun if it’s the new Jurassic movie? But it won’t be.”

It was.

“Jurassic World Rebirth” stars Scarlett Johansson as Zora Bennett, a covert operations specialist (read: mercenary) who puts together a team to sneak into an isolated equatorial country to get dinosaur DNA. Seems that their giant hearts may hold the key to a medicine to cure heart disease in humans.

But…Didn’t all the dinosaurs die in the last movie?

Of course not. This is Hollywood. They always leave the door open for a sequel.

The film provides lip service to a couple of serious topics, such as climate change (dinos now thrive only in the equatorial region because it’s closest to their original habitat) and Big Pharma (a character cynically notes that any medical breakthroughs will be wildly expensive and thus available only to the well-off).

Read more

The rhubarb tattoo.

by

It’s been all rhubarb, all the time lately. That’s not the only reason I haven’t been posting, but gardening in general and rhubarb in particular are a big part of my recent radio silence.

I’ve boiled a ton of the stuff into compote, which is a several-step process:

  • Chop and simmer in a small amount of water, then roughly smash with a potato masher.
  • Drain the slurry through a cloth-lined colander.
  • Puree the result in a blender to remove any stringiness.
  • Can it in pint jars (eight of them so far).

The liquid that drained out was used in smoothies. DF also mixed it with rhubarb simple syrup (more on that in a minute) and ginger ale.

I diced and froze 27 cups of rhubarb, which will become nine cakes in the year to come. That is a lot of dicing, and resulted in the rhubarb tattoo mentioned above:

Read more

Easter tomatoes.

by

Despite what the president says, egg prices have not dropped by 87 percent. They’re still so costly that some folks suggested dyeing potatoes instead of eggs for Easter.

We didn’t dye anything this year, but on Easter we did enjoy a couple of brightly colored roundish objects: fresh tomatoes.

They were from plants that DF wintered over in the basement and brought upstairs about six weeks ago. Life wasn’t easy for them with temps at 40-something degrees, even with six to eight hours of artificial light per day. Yet they somehow put out flowers and started forming teeny-tiny fruits, along with a couple of volunteer marigolds that have us mystified.

Read more

Giveaway: Alaskan artisan chocolate.

by

Why should kids have all the fun at Easter? To even the playing field, I’m giving away some more of those lovely Chugach Chocolates.

The company is a “bean-to-bar” chocolatier in our neighborhood, specializing in dark chocolate. It features some interesting flavor combos, including but not limited to Alaskan kelp and cayenne and Alaskan birch syrup toffee. One of their current limited editions is dark chocolate with spruce tip/lingonberry marshmallows. Not making that up!

You can see why their slogan is “traditionally made for the modern mouth” – if someone had offered me kelp chocolate 50 years ago, I would have run screaming from the room. But it’s pretty tasty stuff.

Here’s a look at what’s up for grabs – winner’s choice:

Read more

7 uses for old/odd canned foods.

by

I’m in the middle of a stealth trip to Phoenix to see my daughter. As always, I offer a second pair of hands for big chores* and/or to take on any tasks she wishes were done but hasn’t had the energy to complete. This time around, canned foods are involved.

Her small pantry cupboard has needed reorganizing for a long time. Some of the dried and canned foods in there were from my COVID-era visit. Did I throw them away? Nope. I made soup.

I took some of the oldest canned foods and drained, combined, spiced and slow-cooked them into a kind of prepper ragout. Use what you’ve got, right?

The stew included two cans of chicken tortilla soup, a can of crushed tomatoes, a can each of kidney and red beans, a can of whole-kernel corn and a small jar of turkey gravy. Abby was thawing some chicken for a lemon-garlic-yogurt dish, so I sliced off a bit to add to the crockpot. I cooked up some old** rice to add to each bowl, and garnished each serving with a dollop of yogurt or a bit of grated Monterey jack cheese.

Was it super-delicious? Only when I was really hungry.

Was it pretty good, though, along with being filling and frugal? You bet.

Read more

How to get free eggs this month.

by

I’m getting several dozen free eggs this month, and so can you. Or maybe you can, depending on how the deal shakes down for you. (More on that in a minute.) But at the very least you’ll get a very decent discount.

A shopping app called Ibotta is offering a $2.50 rebate on eggs every Friday in February. Obviously a dozen eggs costs a lot more than that these days; they’re currently $7.69 per dozen for a basic store-brand dozen. But by combining a few frugal hacks, I’ll get those cackleberries for zero dollars.

In fact, I’ll be earning money for buying them. Here’s how it will work:

Read more

5 money lessons from “One of Them Days.”

by

As regular readers know, I can find personal finance lessons anywhere: action flicks, opera, monster movies, Westerns, sled-dog races, zombie shows, you name it. Today’s example is from the hit comedy “One of Them Days,” which gets bonus PF points from having payday loans as a major plot point.

Before I go any further, a warning: The film has salty language and a frank physical reveal involving male pulchritude. If modern urban speech and forthright discussions of sex wouldn’t sit well with you, avoid this movie.

But if you like buddy comedies – especially those with strong, intelligent women as the buddies – then this might be the film for you. Keke Palmer (“Nope,” “Akeelah and the Bee”) and singer-songwriter SZA play roommates and best friends who struggle to pay the rent while holding on to their dreams.

Like some of you, probably.

 

The two broke friends live in “the Jungle,” a neighborhood full of neglected apartment buildings and broken promises. It’s the kind of place where many folks can’t live live paycheck to paycheck without tacking on a side hustle like styling hair, selling T-shirts or running a mini-mart out of their apartment.

Also like some of you, probably. The Washington Post reports that 5.3 percent of U.S. workers had more than one job in 2024. That’s the highest level since the Great Recession. In some states, the number of multi-job workers is 10 percent.

Read more

Frugal hack, frugal snack.

by

Sometimes you just want a crunchy treat. Chips or pretzels come to mind, but have you noticed the prices lately?

According to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, a 16-ounce bag of potato chips now costs 47% more than it did five years ago. Here at Casa Frugal we have a frugal workaround: homemade croutons.

I started making them for salads, but often they would be gone before supper because DF favors them as a snack. And why not? They’re salty and crunchy and incredibly cheap. Croutons can be made while you’re roasting meat or baking a cake; if you’re not cooking, you can bake them in an air fryer or toaster oven.

I can get a loaf of day-old Italian bread for as little as 58 cents. That means almost a pound of snacking joy – and as the years have gone by, I’ve refined the technique. Here’s how we do it.

Read more