5 money lessons from “One of Them Days.”

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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.

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Frugal hack, frugal snack.

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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.

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Doesn’t feel like Christmas.

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We’re in the midst of one of those awful winter thaws, with temperatures in the low to mid-30s and even some rain at times. Blech. I hate these things because of how slippery the roads and sidewalks get. Thank goodness for my Icebugs; haven’t had a fall yet despite surfaces that my late dad inelegantly described as “slicker than snot on a doorknob.” (As an Amazon affiliate, I may receive a small fee for items bought through my links.)

Lousy weather + seasonal affective disorder are probably two of the reasons why I haven’t set up my small tree. It just doesn’t feel like Christmas this year. Yet gray skies aren’t totally to blame: Post-election anxiety has been kicking my butt.

How in the world did this guy get elected again? Every time he opens his mouth, I flinch and wonder what fresh hell will emerge. Don’t get me started on the folks who work with him.

I may lose readers for making these statements. But it’s how I feel about this con man.

Back to Christmas, though: DF has been practicing holiday carols on the piano, to prepare for an extended family get-together. Hearing songs like “The First Noel,” “The Twelve Days of Christmas,” and “Bring a Torch, Jeanette, Isabella” do make me smile.

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I’m officially old.

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Today is my birthday and I am officially old. Not because of my new age, but because of how I spent my day. Some highlights:

  • Ran errands
  • Dozed briefly in a comfortable chair
  • Paid a bill
  • Hand-washed my support hose
  • Made a plan to go to bed early (we’ll see how that pans out)

Relax: My day sounds a lot worse than it actually was. In fact, it’s been pretty great. For starters, there’s the obvious reason: I’m still on the right side of the grass.

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Giveaway: FinCon24 swag + gift card.

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FinCon24 is in the books, and I’ve decided to go back to a tradition that fell by the wayside: giving away conference tchotchkes. Because who doesn’t need more reusable shopping bags or a new T-shirt for when it’s time to paint the kitchen?

This giveaway is a little different, though, because it will also contain a gift card.

For the uninitiated, FinCon is a professional conference for those who write, podcast, advise or are otherwise affiliated with personal finance. There’s always an expo hall for sponsors and vendors to show attendees what they do.

Two things get our attention – and it isn’t signage or name recognition. No, it’s candy and swag.

The swag is what I’m giving away, because I’m still nibbling on the fun-size candy bars and soft peppermints. But it’s useful swag. Most of it has some kind of corporate branding, but heck, as a nation we’ve been conditioned to pay for the privilege of advertising someone else’s business. (Lookin’ at you, Nike swoosh.)

Here’s what the winner will get: 

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Heading to Atlanta and Phoenix.

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I leave next week for FinCon (the artist formerly known as the Financial Bloggers Conference) in downtown Atlanta. From there I will swing through Phoenix to see my daughter. 

Anyone interested in a meetup in either place?

The conference takes place Wednesday, Oct. 23 through Saturday, Oct. 26. I’ll be in Phoenix from Monday, Oct. 28 until Thursday, Nov. 11. 

My usual MO is to find an easy-to-access fast food restaurant or mall food court and set up shop with my computer. I’ll stick around for a few hours, working if no one shows up and chatting if someone does.

We can chat about whatever you like, but my guess is that most of you want to talk about how frugality can make your life more affordable. More meaningful, too.

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Harvest home.

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For the past few weeks DF has been practicing the music for an ecumenical service that will take place near Thanksgiving. The song that sticks in my head most is “Harvest Home,” an 1844 hymn*. This quatrain in particular applies:

Come, ye thankful people, come

Raise the song of harvest home;

All is safely gathered in,

Ere the winter storms begin.

No storms yet, but it was 29 degrees when I got up the other day. We are thankful that all is safely gathered in.

It was a somewhat dismal summer for the second year in a row, and gardens were more than a month late in ripening. Some things didn’t produce well, or at all; for example, a local tree expert posted on Facebook that he didn’t get a single cherry from his five trees.

We didn’t get that many cherries ourselves: 28, to be exact. Then again, this is only the second year the tree’s been in the ground. Popular fruit-tree wisdom holds that “the first year it sleeps, the second year it creeps and the third year it leaps.” However, I can’t hope for too much in 2025 because a moose got into the yard last week. It harried all three of our fruit trees before DF could scare it off the property by banging a hammer on a shovel.

This isn’t the moose that got into the yard, but I bet he knows the one who did.

Fortunately, we’d already harvested the apples the previous week. Moose can be real jerks.

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How to get Amazon Prime for free.

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For millions of people, Amazon is a way to get whatever they need, whenever they need it – and wherever they are. (More on that in a minute.) That’s why the rebranding of the “Prime Student” program is worth noticing. Amazon is offering six months’ worth of Amazon Prime for free to people aged 18 to 24, plus half-price Prime after that.

That means not just free parcel delivery, but also:

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What do we want to be? A few thoughts on labor.

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(In honor of Labor Day, I decided re-run this post from Sept. 5, 2010.)

When I was a kid, I couldn’t wait to earn money. Penny candy was only part of the reason. Working was a sign of being grown-up. I’d already figured out that being a kid was for losers. Adulthood was where it was at.

That’s why in elementary school I would pick and sell flowers and strawberries. It’s why I rejoiced when it snowed — the local doctor would pay a dollar to have his steps and sidewalk shoveled. It’s why I started baby-sitting at age 11, when I was hardly older than some of my charges.

It’s the only possible reason I could have enjoyed my first “real” job, at age 13: Picking tomatoes in a greenhouse that felt like an incinerator. It was a half-hour bike ride away, through temperature and humidity that raced each other into the high 90s. The plants were taller than I was and their leaves brushed me on all sides. I came home slimed with sap; the shampoo bubbled green when I washed my hair.

But oh, the joy of making $1.35 an hour.

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Giveaway: $25 Amazon card.

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A $25 Amazon card means different things to different people. Summer is winding down, so for some it’s time to buy crayons or school clothes. The child-free might be pricing new winter accessories, or restocking hobby supplies.

Gardeners could be on the lookout for canning supplies. Thrifty folks may be doing a little early holiday shopping (if they aren’t already done). And since summer’s not completely over, possibly you’re in the market for sunscreen or new flip-flops or a good beach read.

Whatever you want, my latest giveaway will fund the first $25 worth. 

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