I am all about rotisserie chicken when I can’t deal with dinner. Bag of salad, box of rice mix.
Next day - chicken soup. Or stir fry with a bag of slaw mix.
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I wanted to buy Luigi some doggie ice cream because it was on sale at the store. Then I realized I could make my own doggie ice cream with bananas and peanut butter.
Then I realized I was considering spending money to buy ice cream for my dog*. And that none of this was necessary at all.
*Nothing wrong with buying ice cream for your dog if that’s your jam. I’m currently trying to reduce my grocery spending and this definitely falls under unnecessary.
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Oooh, do you have a recipe you’ve used that you like?
Some easy meals I did when raising my kids was grilled cheese sandwiches and soup, pancakes and bacon, wrapped beef hotdogs with box Mac and cheese.
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Ooooo we need a meal prep/recipe share thread!
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We’re doing okay-to-good at using up pantry items before the move! I’m proud of us.
Moving is definitely a powerful anti-buying-things motive for me. I do NOT want to move more shit than we already have to move.
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I didn’t do this before my move because I was too tired, so pls know I am also proud of you
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I will eat canned beans in your name.
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I just redeemed credit card points for a $177 gift card that I can use for all sorts of household things! Also our credit card balances are so much more reasonable. I feel like I’m going to see real savings add up in a couple of months. Fingers crossed!
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Tips on not buying clothing when all your clothing is tatty and/or falling apart and/or doesn’t quite fit right?
I’ve succumbed a couple times this summer; got some shorts on Thredup and have bought a couple of not strictly necessary shirts.
Since I WFH and can work in PJ’s and holey T-shirts and shorts that are bleach spotted and poorly fitting, I feel like I should just make do. But now and then I have a fit of “OMG all my clothing is gross and awful” (which is not even true, I do have some nicer things but I don’t wear those around the house usually) and buy something.
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I feel this. I have only been replacing my at-home comfies and workout clothing that doesn’t fit, so once I go back to the office (if? when? who knows) I’m in for a rude awakening! I’m planning to do an inventory first to see what I have that is still useful/nice enough/fits me so I know where the gaps truly are. I suspect some of them are just due to not reaching for those clothes in a while and forgetting what I have. Then I’ll probably make a list and see what I can do with the usual round of fall sales. Also hoping to do a tiny bit of thrifting before being in an “unnecessary” store with a mask feels like a bad idea (might already to you).
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Meh, I am still putting on a KN95 and going into most stores for now. We’ve been in the Brown Elephant, that place is huge with high ceilings like a movie theater, so that felt OK. (They also require masks.) They didn’t have any good clothing though. I went into Buffalo Exchange once and found some leggings I needed, but that felt pretty cramped. I was there on a weekday which helped.
I won’t go into Green Element though, which is the thrift store I like that’s up the street from me. It is tiny and packed and has very poor ventilation. That feels gross.
Honestly if I’m going to buy used I’ll probably just do Thredup. I’ve had really good luck there with fit, surprisingly enough. Only 1 thing I bought, a top, didn’t work for me. And, it fit, it just didn’t look right on me, the cut was wrong for my body.
And, I’m definitely not going back to the office so I don’t even have that argument.
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The great thing about thredup is if something I order fits really well I’ll go back and filter by that brand and that size and see everything that’s available all at once. Huge time and headache saver compared to traditional thrifting.
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I’ve been thinking about this too. One of the last “normal” things I did in 2020 was attend a clothing swap my friend organized and it was a godsend. I would definitely not attend something like that today but I want it.
I’ve been slowly replacing my clothes. Ill fitting clothes annoy me too much. But I’m trying to do it on-purpose and reminding myself that buying a few new shirts per year is something that I absolutely used to do on a regular basis.
Other ideas: mending any obvious things you’ve been putting off, washing your remaining good clothes more delicately, dressing up fancy for hanging around the house to rotate in a more varied wardrobe…
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Might be possible to do a porch or backyard clothing swap!
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That’s a good point!
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Oh, for sure. Especially useful with bottoms. I know that Old Navy is generally cut to match my body and I know what style of jeans are right for it so replacement bottoms are super easy.
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Imo if something has unfixable holes - like a hole in the middle of a tee that can’t be sensibly mended, even if you like visible mending - that’s a very reasonable time for it to become a rag and for you to acquire something without holes. I keep my clothes for years and years, but that’s a line for me. Same for serious stains - dye it or mend it if you can, but if you can’t, rags and replace.
And that goes for whether or not you’re wearing it outside the house - this is about keeping items we own in good repair, and about finding new uses for items that can no longer be repaired.
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Yeah, I don’t often wear nice clothes around the house because they will just get coated in cat hair when Girl Kitty decides to be my meeting buddy on my lap. Most of my nice stuff needs dry cleaning or hand washing.
But I should anyway! Since I am not going out much and it makes me sad to see pretty things ignored in my closet.
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