Fourth and Final Frugal Friday of June 2025
Welcome to Frugal Friday!
My Frugal Week
My week wasn’t the best health wise as I woke up Sunday night in excruciating pain. My first thought was a kidney stone, so I went to the ER and sure enough it was a 9mm kidney stone.
After some medical care they sent me home, but I returned soon after with a high fever and chills, which turned out to be septic shock from an infection. This time they kept me and after antibiotics, IV fluids, and a ureteral stent, I made it home Wednesday evening. I’ll return in two weeks to have the stent and stone removed.
So, this is reason I’ve not commented on your blogs this week like I usually do during the week.
Yard Sales Last Week
We started out on Saturday morning with a list of over thirty yard sales. We started in North Chattanooga at a church yard sale and then worked our way back towards home.
We went to so many not on our map that the other sales started to close down (due to time of day and the heat) before we got to all of the sales, which is fine with me as I started to get tired from the extra heat.
My best deal of the day was another pair of Keen shoes for $5.00! These were one size smaller than the last pair I bought. But, I ended up selling them the very next day on Facebook Marketplace for $50.
So, if I’m feeling up to yard sales this week, I’ll have more than enough money for this week along with some left from last week without dipping into my own funds.
Interesting Info from Jaspreet Singh
Jaspreet Singh, who creates content on the Minority Mindset YouTube channel, created a chart to show the real reason Americans are poorer that the system does not want you to know.
Median Income in 1971 went from $10,000 to $70,000 in 2023, which is a 600% increase.
Cars went from $5,000 in 1971 to $42,000 in 2023 which is a 700% increase.
Median Homes went from $25,000 in 1971 to $484,000 in 2023, which is an increase of 1800%.
College went from $400 a year in 1971 to $9,300 a year in 2023, which is an increase of 2200%.
So, over the last fifty years household income went from one person working a job to two people working a job and only increased 600%, and as you can see from his numbers, growth in household income still has not kept up pace with the cost of many things people need, and these are just a few examples.
You can find his video here if you're interested.
Freebies
The church yard sale had free pillows they were giving away. I spied a Temper-Pedicure pillow in the stack and decided to get it. They are expensive in the retail world and very nice to sleep with. I steamed it very well once I brought it home.
Photo of the Week
I saw these flowers last week at a yard sale and thought they were so pretty, so I used Google Lens and found out they are Chinese Bellflowers. The lady's yard was so neat and tidy and this was surrounding her mailbox, which was just beautiful.
Avoiding Spending
We didn’t avoid spending money this week as we made multiple trips to Chattanooga to the hospital and had to buy more gas than usual, plus my prescriptions. And we picked up chicken burrito bowls from Burrito Express on our way home from the hospital.
Saving Money on Entertainment
Have you ever watched the series Sneaky Pete? I stumbled across a trailer of it, so I thought I would ask all of my readers. Turns out it’s free to watch for Amazon Prime members.
That’s all I have for this week. I hope you’ve had a wonderful week!
Thank you for dropping by my frugal blog, you are always welcome here.
We would love to hear all about your week in the comment section.
Belinda 🫶 💕 Homemaker at Heart 💕 ~ Living within our Means ~My Linktree
~ She looketh well to the ways of her household ~Proverbs 31:27
Belinda,
ReplyDeleteToo bad about the kidney stone. I am glad you went back since sepsis is nothing to let lie.
But, even your yard sales were successful.
Thank you. 💕
DeleteTake care of yourself!!
ReplyDeleteBun
Thank you, Bun. 💕
DeleteWhat a week for you! I hope you are feeling much better. Glad you went back with the fever, to treat the sepsis. Those flowers are very pretty. Great job on the shoe flip! I don’t know about Sneaky Pete, but I may check it out.
ReplyDeleteThank you, Penny. It’s been a rough one to say the least. I hope you’ve had a great week.
DeleteOh goodness golly - so sorry you went through all that this week. Wishing you better health and feel better.
ReplyDeleteI have no idea where they got these figures, but where in the world would 484,000 be medium priced for a home? That would definitely be high end here in my state. That figure sounds very off IMO.
Hope you have a good weekend - rest!
Thank you, Cheryl. I know what you say about home prices in your state as I’ve looked there specifically in Anderson and they are much lower than housing prices here. They are outrageous here as is that $484K figure. I won’t ever buy a house that expensive! But I do look regularly for an affordable one. 💕
DeleteOh my goodness, Belinda. How scary and painful. I hope the next two weeks is comfortable and all will be resolved in two weeks.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Sam.
DeleteWow, a 9mm kidney stone! No wonder you were in such pain, that is a big stone. My hubby has dealt with a few and they are not for the faint of heart. I'm glad you got immediate and good care. Sepsis is scary stuff, I lost a friend to it last year. Wishing you the best as you continue your recovery. Take care.
ReplyDeleteThank you so much, Bobi.
DeleteI am so sorry you are dealing with the kidney stone. Not fun at all!
ReplyDeleteTake care of yourself and don't worry about the yard sales right now.
(Though your deal on the Keens was pretty darn good)
After reading your stats on house prices I checked the median sale price in the Birmingham Metro area. So far this year it is roughly 240K, with a median income of roughly 70k. Understanding this accounts for houses sold in every community, I was still surprised it was that low.
Thank you, Anne. Yes, I did not go to any yard sales today. Tomorrow depends on how I feel too.
DeleteThat is lower housing compared to other communities. I am surprised by how expensive some houses are these days. I look at these prices regularly and it definitely takes two good incomes to armors them with all the other expenses in life.
So sorry to hear you have been in so much pain Belinda. What a shock for you. Rest yourself ❤️ 🙏
ReplyDeleteThank you, Effieq. 💕
DeleteI'm sorry you have had such an awful week! Take care and rest and don't worry about any of us right now! Lana
ReplyDeleteThank you, Lana. 💗
DeleteOh my dear how awful. First the pain of the stone and then septic shock, which kills people. Please take care my friend. Is there anything I can do from afar? Send you a gift card for meals?
ReplyDeleteYou are so sweet, Kim. Thank you. We are good right now. I made some chicken burgers for dinner tonight. I’m taking it easy though and didn’t yard sale. I even took a long nap today. 😴
DeleteSo sorry to read about the medical problems. You take it easy girl and I hope all goes well for this week.
ReplyDeleteI had those flowers here in my front garden for many years. They were called Chinese Balloon Flowers and were very unique.
God bless.
Thank you, Jackie. Those flowers are just beautiful!
DeleteSo glad you’re doing better. My mom passed away from septic. I was told that some healthy 20 yrs. old don’t make it from that type of infection. So yes you have good intuition and glad you went right away and didn’t wait.
ReplyDelete-Rosa R.
Thank you, Rosa. I’m very sorry about your Mom. When my fever spiked to 102.6, I knew I needed to go back.
DeleteOh Belinda, I am so sorry. Hope you feel better soon. Just take it easy for a while. It is too hot to be out too.
ReplyDeleteGreat buy on the shoes and lovely flowers.
Hugs
Kathy
Thank you so much, Kathy.
DeleteBelinda, I'm so sorry about your kidney stone and sepsis! I'm so glad you went back to the hospital the second time. I hope you're feeling better soon. I looked up the median home price here in NJ and it's $531,200!!! This state is insane! Take care! Janel
ReplyDeleteThank you, Janel. That is wild for housing! It’s like some of the prices I see here, just nuts.
DeleteThat sounds so painful! I'm really glad you went back to the hospital & got treatment for the sepsis - that can be so dangerous! Please take it easy on yourself this week, and rest up as you feel up to things. Nice work on the Keen sandals! Hawaii Planner
ReplyDeleteThank you so much!
DeleteYou’re not looking very critically at the data you quoted. Yes, perhaps the mean has gone up for goods but you’re not thinking about the variety of goods added to what’s for sale these days that sway that median and can easily skew it higher. For example more super premium cars exist than ever before. Thus median goes up. It’s not apples to apples to compare median cost of goods to median income.
ReplyDelete👍
DeleteThis is an interesting comment as I admit to not completely understanding statistics. However, I looked up the median home price in my area ($350k) and the median income ($75k). I was especially surprised by the income figure as I know for a fact most people in this county make way less. I looked up the per capita income ($37k) and that sounded more likely. Then I looked up per capita income (average per person) vs median income (income distribution--half the population makes more than median, half makes less.) Now it makes perfect sense to me. We are a rural area where incomes are low, but we also are a bedroom community for high earners from a large city. It's a known fact here that the rich city folks earn way more than us natives so that's why our median is so high compared to what actual local wages are. Makes sense to me now.
DeleteThat does explain the difference, Bobi. We have a similar situation here as Chattanooga has a lot of those high earners, but they tend to live in places like Ooltewah and Cleveland.
Delete