Frugal Friday
Oct. 24th, 2025 10:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ecosophia
Welcome back to Frugal Friday! This is a weekly forum post to encourage people to share tips on saving money, especially but not only by doing stuff yourself. A new post will be going up every Friday, and will remain active until the next one goes up. Contributions will be moderated, of course, and I have some simple rules to offer, which may change further as we proceed.Rule #1: this is a place for polite, friendly conversations about how to save money in difficult times. It's not a place to post news, views, rants, or emotional outbursts about the reasons why the times are difficult and saving money is necessary. Nor is it a place to use a money saving tip to smuggle in news, views, etc. I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.
Rule #2: this is not a place for you to sell goods or services, period. Here again, I have a delete button and I'm not afraid to use it.
Rule #3: please give your tip a heading that explains briefly what it's about. Homemade Chicken Soup, Garden Containers, Cheap Attic Insulation, and Vinegar Cleans Windows are good examples of headings. That way people can find the things that are relevant for them. If you don't put a heading on your tip it will be deleted.
Rule #4: don't post anything that would amount to advocating criminal activity. Any such suggestions will not be put through.
Rule #5: don't post LLM ("AI") generated content, and don't bring up the subject unless you're running a homemade LLM program on your own homebuilt, steam-powered server farm.
With that said, have at it!
RE: Washing Dishes
Date: 2025-10-24 03:40 pm (UTC)I got into the habit for a while of using those detergent pods. Bad move. Those stupid things run around $0.40 apiece.
I bought a box of powder a month or so ago and stuck a old tablespoon measure into it. A heaping tablespoon per load gives me the same clean dishes as the pods.
The heaping tablespoon is around 35 grams. A box of powder detergent (2126 grams) costs $7.00. This works out to $0.11 each load versus the $0.40 for the expensive.
Measure things out, use only what you need, pennies grow up to be dollars.
Making your basement window wells work better
Date: 2025-10-24 07:21 pm (UTC)You can upgrade them to capture more natural light, making your basement brighter without $$ electricity. At least, during the day!
I've done this to ALL my basement window wells and to the light shaft in our Florida Room that opens onto a finished basement window.
This is a nasty, dirty, physically difficult job because of how you've got to lay on the ground when you're cleaning and repainting but you only have to do the really hard part once.
1. Clean out the window well of dirt, dust, cobwebs, weeds, and so forth.
2. Scrape out the dirt at the bottom of the window well to several inches below the window sill.
3. With WHITE Rustoleum, paint the insides of the metal window well. This is the part that holds back the dirt. White Rustoleum won't stick as well to plastic window well inserts. It works pretty well on metal. Use disposable brushes because you'll never be able to clean the brushes properly.
4. With WHITE Drylock, paint all exposed concrete, like window sills, bright white. Sweep and/or clean the exposed concrete first. Drylock goes on like pudding so you don't have to have pristine concrete.
5. Clean the glass window, front and back. If there are screens, vacuum them.
6. Refill the window well with washed WHITE marble gravel. This comes in bags at the garden center. Wash off the marble dust before you fill the well if you want the brightest white.
7. Add a layer of clear glass marbles or pebbles over the marble chips for added reflectivity.
8. Top the window well with a salvaged glass storm window, using a storm window that extends out several inches on either side of the widest part of the window well. These work MUCH better than those awful plastic bubbles to keep the rain out and they last for years, compared to those awful plastic bubbles.
9. If you've got a metal grate over a light shaft (which we do), sand it lightly and paint it from top to bottom with bright WHITE Rustoleum paint.
10. Thereafter, for maintenance, you'll need to dust out cobwebs, vacuum any screens, pull weeds, remove debris, and wash the storm windows as needed.
This really works. If your window wells are like ours were, they're dark, filthy holes that barely admit any light at all. Afterwards, you'll be amazed.
Re: Making your basement window wells work better
Date: 2025-10-24 08:44 pm (UTC)The other area is a flashing around the wood stove pipe on my rental, the roofer is like, yeah, just do it...but again, I dont realy know the steps involved. That one is galvanized sheet metal, so I will want it to have that or grey look once done. I dont want it to get worse, I woul not want to have to hire to replace it !
thanks
Re: Making your basement window wells work better
Date: 2025-10-25 01:15 pm (UTC)Re: Making your basement window wells work better
Date: 2025-10-25 02:47 pm (UTC)Re: Making your basement window wells work better
Date: 2025-10-25 05:23 pm (UTC)The second is to NOT clean the brushes afterwards. You use so much noxious chemicals plus gallons of water that it's not worth it. Cheap, disposable brushes that you throw away afterwards are the way to go.
Start with NEW, cheap, disposable brushes. After each painting session, wrap them in newspaper and throw them out.
Re: Making your basement window wells work better
Date: 2025-10-25 02:32 pm (UTC)Thank you!
BoysMom
PS I know a Boy getting a project today . . .
Re: Making your basement window wells work better
Date: 2025-10-25 05:26 pm (UTC)The difference in light is amazing!
Do NOT skip the step of painting every available nearby surface that's concrete WHITE. White paint reflects light. If the concrete or cement is raw or battered, ALWAYS use Drylock. It's made to seal into the cement and it works.
If the surfaces are clean with good paint adherence, you can use WHITE cement paint.
Always use white paint if you want to maximize your light!
Re: Making your basement window wells work better
Date: 2025-10-26 02:13 am (UTC)Re: Making your basement window wells work better
Date: 2025-10-26 07:26 am (UTC)Along these lines, once I was living in a townhouse that had very little light. It was a good house in many ways but the lack of light was really bothering me and so I was starting to look at other houses. The ground floor, which was generally somewhat cold and gloomy, had a huge skylight that brought natural light down from the 3rd floor, an area painted all white and large enough for three potted trees, so that was helpful. But then, behind the trees in the skylight well, I added a giant mirror! Huge difference! That mirror wasn't cheap, but it was a heap cheaper than moving.
(I ended up moving some 3 or 4 years later, but that's another story, and it was for different reasons.)
Utility sink stand ideas
Date: 2025-10-24 08:38 pm (UTC)Once there is a sink stand, I can figure out ABS pipe, fittings etc... to connect the drain to the sink, plumbing is not my thing realy. But the ABS is just plastic and toxic glues so sounds doabe
Re: Utility sink stand ideas
Date: 2025-10-25 07:57 am (UTC)i can only imagine that plumbing grade/size would make it more expensive. do your own due diligence. good luck with the project!
Re: Utility sink stand ideas
Date: 2025-10-25 05:24 pm (UTC)Re: Utility sink stand ideas
Date: 2025-10-26 06:25 am (UTC)Re: Utility sink stand ideas
Date: 2025-10-25 11:09 am (UTC)Antique washbasin stand at my cousin's: wooden cabinet like a contemporary bathroom vanity without the plumbing, marble top with a hole into which the ?porcelain bowl sits. The bowl is small enough to take out to empty so no drain was involved. That might scale up to your laundry basin. The operative part is the waterproof top surface.
- iridescent scintillating elver
Re: Utility sink stand ideas
Date: 2025-10-25 04:01 pm (UTC)Re: Utility sink stand ideas
Date: 2025-10-25 10:36 pm (UTC)(no subject)
Date: 2025-10-24 11:09 pm (UTC)We went through a basement lightening up a few years ago to make it a supplemental living area. We don't have window wells as there is a bulkhead for egress. But what also helped was I picked up a few mirrors at the thrift store and we hung them in a decorative manner in the darkest spots and that also helps amplify whatever light you have.
Mirrors are fabulous. Use more of them!
Date: 2025-10-25 05:28 pm (UTC)Planter Box Success!
Date: 2025-10-25 04:44 am (UTC)Even though I only overlapped the hardware cloth sides with the bottom, no evidence of voles or moles. Even the raccoons stayed out of it!
It was too shady in the back, since there are two fir trees that shaded it out too much, but perhaps I can get them cut down before Spring.
Here's a link to the blog with pictures--
https://jackmanassas.blogspot.com/2025/10/critter-resistant-planter-box-end-of.html
And the original post from this Spring;
https://jackmanassas.blogspot.com/2025/05/critter-resistant-planter-box.html
--EG
Re: Planter Box Success!
Date: 2025-10-25 04:04 pm (UTC)Men's Sheds
Date: 2025-10-26 12:25 am (UTC)Men's Sheds are community ventures with workshops and tools for blokes to make and fix things and have a space for themselves. They seem to have arisen with a mental health/wellbeing focus and have become a widespread movement in towns in my country which seems to be devloping in interesting idiosyncratic ways.
One I knew of built little freestanding book houses for street libraries.
At my sister's local MS they make household items like chopping boards and pokers and sell them for a moderate price.
Mine seems to be a resource for citizens to have repairs done and projects constructed. I have heard of slats being replaced on a garden bench, a new aviary and a whelping box for somebody's dog. Myself went in with some garden tools coming loose from their handles - the men sharpened the blades and replaced the handles, all for a modest donation. Now I am having a new letterbox fabricated.
In this small town there is really nobody else who offers this kind of small scale service - even the engineer's shop would not sharpen my garden tools. It took much asking around till I learned that the Men's Shed could help: information transmission has become a significant problem in noncommercial activities.
Alhough there are council and state funded "Information Centres" in many places in this country their bias is towards commercial operations, not free or nonprofit activities.
Lavishly supplied with donations from residents, Men's Sheds may hold a sale or open day at which you can obtain cheap tools and supplies. Free furniture too which the members at mine were happy to modify to requirements.
Re: Men's Sheds
Date: 2025-10-29 12:14 am (UTC)Lathechuck
Understood
Date: 2025-10-26 01:53 pm (UTC)You have very reasonable rules. I agree to follow all of the rules you have established.
Emilio
A thick, cheap, lentil soup (for pressure cooker)
Date: 2025-10-26 02:55 pm (UTC)Ingredients: 1kg potatoes(chopped small), 200g red lentils, 200g green lentils(rinse lentils), 1 tin chopped tomatoes, 3 small red onions(chopped), 7 garlic cloves(minced), 2 tablespoons olive oil, 2 celery sticks(chopped),2 large carrots(sliced), 1/2 large Savoy cabbage(sliced), 2 vegetable stock cubes, water(hot/boiling), salt, pepper.
Method : stir veg stock cubes into 1ltr boiling water. Heat olive oil gentle heat in pressure cooker. Add onions and gently fry until soft - don't brown. Add potatoes, celery, carrots. Turn up heat and fry 3 mins. Add garlic and stock. Bring to a simmer. Add tomatoes, stir well. Add cabbage, stir. Add pepper(to taste). Add lentils on top - gently - don't stir. Top up water to max line. Shut lid and turn up heat. Bring to max pressure. Pressure cook for 12 minutes. Shut off heat. Leave. When pressure drops to allow, open pressure cooker. Add salt(to taste) and good stir. Leave a few minutes and then place into containers. Leave to cool completely. Freeze/refridgerate.
Comments : Makes 11-14 portions (based on my portion requirements)for less than £0.40 per portion. I serve with steamed green beans(thrown over the top). Also with marmite(a yeast extract full of B vitamins - American equivalent?) on wholemeal bread for a more healthy/rounded meal. It's thick, and can look a little like baby food.
The cost of rice?
Date: 2025-10-29 12:17 am (UTC)Lathechuck
Re: The cost of rice?
Date: 2025-10-30 09:54 pm (UTC)