All blog posts on Frugal Thumb
Today I assisted in refinishing an old wooden table that my mother in law wanted to modernize for the grandkids’ play room. We used an electric sander to remove the shiny varnish from the entire piece of furniture, and then wiped off the dust thoroughly with a damp rag. Then we used a mini roller and painted the top with gray chalk paint and wiped it to give it a distressed look before it fully dried. For the sides and…
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We have a nice view of our patio table in the winter. Just sitting out there not being used… Well, what if it could become a beautiful focal point of the yard as a bird/squirrel hot spot, great for nature-watching while helping the local wildlife get through the cold days? Just add some fallen branches, the bottom of an old planter, and bird seed. Now we wait to be discovered… Thanks for this idea goes to my father in law!…
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I found this article and I’m going to be trying this out tomorrow. Chicken is thawing in the fridge right now! I’m always looking for ways to do more in less time and the crockpot is sorely underutilized right now at our house. This needs to change. Here’s to making helpful healthful changes. https://www.livestrong.com/article/536887-how-to-cook-boneless-skinless-chicken-breasts-in-the-crock-pot/ EDIT: The chicken only needed to cook about four hours on the low setting so I was glad I was home checking on it every hour…
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One of our smaller trees didn’t make it in our backyard this year, so my husband cut it down. Ever attempting to think of DIY/RRR projects, I dragged it into our garage with a plan to make something out of it. I’m still not sure what, but I read that tree trunks need months to dry out so that’s what I’m allowing it to do this winter. In the meantime, I am researching how I’ll debark it and make into…
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This is a project that I completed a couple of years ago when we bought a new mattress and I didn’t want to throw away the old one. We needed a couch (and a bed) in the basement, so I did some googling and found instructions on how to make a sofa from a mattress. 8 hours and $10 of supplies later, we had our new l-shaped couch: Since it was made from a queen mattress, it is also comfortable…
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These are delicious and so easy to make- my kiddo loves helping at every step in the process. Win win! Note: Pretzels are the base for all of these treats. We used regular and gluten-free varieties. We laid out the pretzels, put the chocolate candy of choice on top, popped them in the oven at 350 degrees for three minutes, then finally squished a nut or another candy on top. Once they completely cooled, they were ready for party snacking…
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Hyperthyroid medicine sucks! As far as I know, I have never had an allergic reaction to any kind of medicine- until now. Three weeks into taking methimazole and I broke out in huge, itchy, red hives all over my body. Here’s a leg photo: My endocrinologist prescribed the medicine to me when my thyroid uptake results came back inconclusive and I wasn’t a candidate for RAI/thyroid oblation. When my rash broke out, she had me stop taking the medicine immediately.…
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Who says wrapping paper and bows are just for presents? These cheap but festive items can really spice up any holiday decorating in your home. We put my husband’s nutcrackers on the mantel, but it needed something to snaz it up. So, I used my daughter’s free poster from the nutcracker, wrapping paper and bows to do the job. I added the bows about the nutcrackers and the wrapping paper pieces to the wall. Festive feel up 100% ?: This…
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Due to our health insurance coverage and budgeting, we had to get some very plain eyeglasses for my daughter’s first pair of frames. You can read about that frugal experience and how we saved over $300 on the frames here. But I wanted my kiddo to love her glasses, and they were boring compared to the frames she had really wanted. So I did some brainstorming. How can you add serious personality to plain eyeglasses? And how can you change the…
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It is extremely important to clean the gutters on your home at least once a year. Twice a year is even better. You don’t want to skip it. Why? Gutter cleaning is one of those small home maintenance jobs that keeps other bigger and badder things from happening. However, it can be a bit expensive to hire someone to clean the gutters for you. For our smaller home, it would run about $100 per gutter cleaning. So I tried to…
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