Frugal Boundaries: 5 Items I Refuse to Spend Money On

Join me around the kitchen table today to discuss those items we won't buy.
image: Sosey Interiors

Reading through yesterday's comment-conversations about salad dressings was such a joy for me. One of the things that stood out the most was how beautifully unique everyone’s approach to the kitchen truly is. Some of us love the ritual of mixing a dressing from scratch, while others consciously choose a specific store-bought brand to fit a dietary target, save time, or match a great bargain found at a grocery salvage outlet.

That conversation reminded me of a powerful truth: frugality is never a one-size-fits-all formula. What feels like an unnecessary expense to one person might be a valuable tool, a health necessity, or a simple comfort to another. Our budget boundaries are deeply personal, shaped by our individual lives, seasons, and priorities.

My own frugal journey has taught me that saying "no" to some things, especially those that don't matter to me, doesn't deprive me, it liberates me. It gives me freedom despite a tight budget, to enjoy the things that do truly matter. My budget isn't shaped by what I cannot afford, but by what I intentionally walk past. 

With that spirit of variety in mind, today I'm opening up my household shopping list to you, to share five everyday items that will never cross my receipt -- and why saying "no" feels like a massive win for my life. And just so you know, I fully expect that your own lists might look completely different.

Since I will ask you to also share in the comments, I thought I'd simplify the thought process and provide five categories. You may or may not follow those categories. That's up to you.

The Grocery Convenience Trap

image: Heather McKean on Unsplash

There are times when convenience is paramount to getting meals on the table. And then there are others when saying "no" to the convenience product frees us to spend in ways more meaningful to ourselves.

My absolutely "no" for convenience are those packet seasoning mixes. If you read the ingredients on the back, these flavor packs sometimes contain preservatives, anti-caking ingredients, and highly-processed thickeners and fillers. 

In addition, there's a lot of wasteful packaging, and of course, these are much more expensive than mixing your own seasonings together. For example, taco seasoning mix packets. At Walmart, Old El Paso is priced at 97 cents. I can mix up the same amount as a packet, but of my own seasoning blend, consisting of chili powder, cumin, salt, garlic or garlic powder, onion or onion powder, paprika, black pepper, oregano, and red pepper flakes, that will cost me about 8 to 10 cents using bulk bin spices.

My mother, bless her -- a new bride in the advent of the convenience era, always bought packets. They're handy and great if you don't want to buy a large canister of spices or don't have bulk bin sources nearby. And if you're really busy, I can see where these would take the thinking out of making dinner.

I like that making my own spice blends in the moment keeps me connected to all of what I'm feeding my family. I know all of the ingredients, and this is very important to me.

The Duplicate "Single-Purpose" Tool 

image: Lucas van Oort on Unsplash

Sometimes having the exact tool or product for the job is important. You wouldn't try to hammer a nail using a screwdriver, right? But there are other times where a multi-purpose tool or product will save your home from excessive clutter.

Official toilet-cleaning liquid, those bottles with a tipped nipple dispenser to spray/squeeze under the rim, is my idea of a single-function product that I just wont buy. I use multi-purpose bleach or hydrogen peroxide with a brush to clean the inside of the toilet bowl. It takes a minute to do, or if a toilet has water rim stains, I will let bleach sit in the water for a half hour before brushing and flushing. But the actual pouring or spraying in bleach takes seconds to do. 

The beauty of using bleach or hydrogen peroxide in place of a specialized cleaning solution is I can use the bleach also to get whites in the laundry brighter, clean the sink drain opening in the bathrooms, spray the porcelain kitchen sink with a diluted blend of either to whiten stains, and make my own bleach wipes during a widespread health emergency (or a not-so-widespread one, for example when one of us has a bad stomach virus). While in theory I could wipe down counters and doorknobs with toilet cleaner, I think the blue dye it contains would cause staining of more porous surfaces. Also, a gallon of bleach is about 5 cents an ounce. A bottle of nozzle-type toilet cleaner is 8 cents an ounce.

Again with my sweet mother -- she did buy the special bottles of toilet cleaner. They were handy and convenient. I can see that. And the bottles were relatively small. She could keep a bottle under the sink in every bathroom. In contrast, a large gallon of bleach (for best price per ounce) takes up a lot of space under a sink. Besides, the nozzle solutions were less likely to splash or get onto rugs or clothing.

I'd like to point this out about multi-use household items -- if I relied on special toilet cleaners, when I ran out, I would be out of luck until I went shopping again. If I rely on something like bleach, which I may use multiple times in a month for multiple applications, I have that many more opportunities to see that I am near running out and need to add it to my next shopping list. And because we use it for many purposes, I buy the largest retail container available, so running out takes place less often.

Here's my philosophy: If one product or tool can do many jobs, my house is that much simpler to maintain.

The Name-Brand Illusion (Saving on Selected Store Brands)

image: engin akyurt on Unsplash

I have a feeling this category will be controversial, as brands can feel so personal to the individual. I will pay top dollar for name-brand organic all-purpose and whole wheat flour. But that's because I don't want or can't have some of the other ingredients added to all-purpose flour, or I want stone-ground whole wheat, or I want all organic to avoid glyphosate and other chemicals used in growing or after harvest. 

However, there are some grocery staples where the store brand and the name brand are basically identical behind their labels. When it comes to canned and frozen vegetables, such as canned corn, canned green beans, canned tomato paste, frozen peas, etc., I am not at all concerned with brand. Even if a store brand may have a woody piece or two (sometimes happens with canned green beans), I can pick it out and still enjoy the savings of not buying name brand vegetables. As for my mother, she always bought the store brand of canned goods, too, when available.

Using the store brand of canned vegetables allows just the wiggle room in our budget that I need to buy the organic flours.

The Digital Noise (Paid Digital Services -- Movie/TV Streaming, Entertainment, Music, Games, Book Apps, Magazine Subscriptions, Cloud Storage) 

image: Kevin Woblick on Unsplash

On-demand media, gaming, and software has taken over traditional physical media with instant cloud-based access to a world that didn't exist 40 years ago. During Covid, everyone I knew had subscribed to movie streaming. I knew people who were paying subscriptions on services they weren't getting around to using. Meanwhile, our library system has been practically begging us to take advantage of free on-demand music and movie streaming and the e-book selection. 

I don't know how much agreement there will be on this one, but in our house, we don't pay for any entertainment subscriptions or movie streaming apps. We find so much entertainment for free via the local library, youtube, the free apps that can be installed on Roku, Internet Archive, borrowed dvds from friends, free-pile VHS tapes (yes, we still have a VHS player), and on rare, rare occasion the television with amplified rabbit ears. I have no idea how much we save each month. And we aren't spending our time chasing sign-up deals then trying to stay on top of canceling before the much higher price kicks in. 

I just want to emphasize something, the Internet Archive is an amazing resource for media that is no longer being sold or even on the shelves at your local library. Check it out. 

The Automatic Upgrade Culture 

image: Diane Picchiottino on Unsplash

Modern culture seems to be obsessed with replacing something that works perfectly fine simply because a newer, shinier upgrade was released. Maybe its kitchen appliances in a new finish, or the latest smartphone or laptop, or perhaps its buying a new wardrobe every season -- there's temptation to have the newest of everything, even when the older version has a lot of life left in it. 

This one is easy for me and likely saves us the most money of any of the items on my list -- buying new cars just because they look newer than our current ones. Our newest car is now 16 years old, and our oldest car is 22 years old. We take pride in the ownership of the cars we have. We keep them clean and in good working condition. We've always driven older cars. The fact that they're not the latest style doesn't seem to affect us. But we're all different in that regard. 

This is a perfect example of saving in some areas so we can afford others. Driving an older car has saved tens of thousands over the course of our marriage. This coupled with lots of smaller savings has allowed us to have me work at home. It's all about what has the greatest importance to a person or couple.

Consciously choosing to not spend in these areas has allowed us to have the life we wanted, kept our budget incredibly resilient, and in some cases, has reduced clutter in our home.

Your Turn: I want to hear from you as we head into the weekend! What is the one everyday item, convenience trap, or service that you absolutely refuse to spend your hard-earned money on? Let’s swap our lists in the comments below!

One Vintage Base, Endless Variations: The Ultimate Frugal Salad Dressing

It's summertime (or almost)!
Our garden is producing a lot of leafy green stuff for salad-making. 

Have you ever found yourself standing in the salad dressing aisle at the grocery storing, staring at rows and rows of plastic bottles with ingredients that you may or may not be able to pronounce or find in nature? I began my love affair with homemade salad dressings one such shopping afternoon many years ago. I said to myself, "there's got to be a better way to do dressings." 

Long before bottled salad dressings took over our refrigerator shelves, home-cooks relied on dressings made from a handful of basic ingredients, costing pennies to whip up. Lately, I've been diving into my vintage cookbook collection, and I found an early to mid-century salad dressing recipe that reminded me of how magical pantry basics can be.

Is It a Cookbook or an Advertisement?

Today's recipe is for a basic French dressing that has 12 variations (with descriptions for which salad type for each). I found this gem in a 1930s promotional cookbook, The Heinz Salad Book.

Promotional cookbooks have been a popular way over the years for food manufacturers to market their own products. Back in the day, they were mostly small paperbound booklets, gifted or sold in a variety of ways, including proof of purchase mail-in, radio show giveaways, attached or inside of food packaging, at live cooking demonstrations, and by door-to-door salesmen.

In my own life, I can recall small Kraft Foods and Pillsbury paperbound cookbooks. The Pillsbury ones were frequently found at the checkout of the supermarket. Today, many food manufacturers include a large recipe section on their websites. As you can guess, these cookbook-lets and manufacturer recipe sites are used as a marketing tool to entice customers to purchase more of their products. My two daughters are big fans of the Kraft website. They love the "convenience" factor and processed food taste.

So, taking a little detour, here. I love the cover of this cook booklet. The type face is one of many Art Deco fonts. The date of the original printing of this book falls right smack into the period when Art Deco fonts were in high use, from the late 1920s to the late 1930s. Note the extreme verticality of the letters, the use of thick and thin strokes, and the angularity of the "S".

I also want to show you the "centerfold" of the book. The images throughout the rest of the book are black and white photos. However, the center of the book opens up to this gigantic full color display of all of Heinz's products at that time, just in case there was any question whose products the cookbook wanted you to purchase. Their products are "in the pantries of particular people." Now don't you want to be like the other "special" people and have a pantry filled with Heinz products?

Moving on to the recipe . . .

The Base French Dressing (Foundation)

Imagine you're a 1930-something housewife. You're still feeling the pinch of the Great Depression. It's a mid-June afternoon and you're putting a supper together for your family. Your vegetable garden is producing a variety of tender leafy greens and fresh herbs. You want to make a tasty dressing to turn those greens into a lovely side salad to accompany the leftover Hoover stew. The free salad cookbook that you sent away for just arrived in that morning's post. You wipe your hands on your apron and open up the book. There, on the first page is an easy-looking dressing that uses items you already have in your pantry. Your dinner planning is now taken care of.

Ingredients:

1/2 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/8 teaspoon paprika
1/4 cup vinegar (cider preferred)
1/2 cup olive oil

In a pint jar with screw-top lid, add all ingredients and shake. Keep refrigerated. Shake well each time you use.

Variations

As I said, there are 12 variations, some that sound tasty, others not so much. But I'll offer them all to you, anyway, in case you're curious or can think of other ways to use the Heinz recipe. Here they are in their vintage glory.

Anchovy Dressing

To foundation recipe, add 2 tablespoons of finely chopped anchovies.

Good with stuffed hard-cook eggs that use finely chopped celery, dash paprika, additional anchovies (mashed), mayonnaise along with egg yolks to fill whites. Arrange stuffed egg halves on lettuce bed or watercress leaves. Serve with Anchovy Dressing.

Chiffonade Dressing

To foundation recipe, add 2 tablespoons chopped parsley, 2 teaspoons chopped onion, 1 hard-cooked egg, chopped, and 1/4 cup chopped cooked beets.

Good on a Romaine salad or cabbage salad.

Chutney Dressing

To foundation recipe, add 1/4 cup finely chopped chutney.

Good on tongue salad or a country club salad (aka Chef Salad).

Honey French Dressing

In foundation recipe, use 1 tablespoon less vinegar, and add 1/8 teaspoon additional paprika and 1 tablespoon honey.

Good on fruit salads or fruit and greens salads.

Ketchup Dressing

To foundation recipe, add 1/4 cup ketchup.

Good on asparagus salad or basic lettuce salad (wedge salad would be classic).

Mustard Dressing

To foundation recipe, add 2 tablespoons prepared mustard.

Good on chicken salad or potato and egg salad.

Piquant Dressing

To foundation recipe, add 1/2 teaspoon prepared brown mustard, 1/8 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce, 1/2 teaspoon onion juice, 2 drops hot sauce.

Good on a thinly sliced Spanish onion salad, in which onion slices have been marinated in a blend of water, vinegar, salt, and sugar. After marinating 1 hour, drain marinade thoroughly, then toss onions with Piquant Dressing. Serve on lettuce, adding chopped parsley.

Roquefort Dressing

To foundation recipe, add 4 tablespoons crumbled Roquefort cheese.

Good on lettuce hearts salad or Romaine salad.

Spinosa Dressing

To foundation recipe, add 2 tablespoons capers, 1 tablespoon chopped stuffed green olives, 1 teaspoon chopped parsley.

Good on tomato sandwiches and jellied ham mousse salad.

Summer Dressing

In foundation recipe, use 1 tablespoon less vinegar and add 3 tablespoons pineapple juice, 3 tablespoons orange juice, and 1 teaspoon sugar.

Good on lettuce and watercress salad and cantaloupe salad.

Tarragon Dressing

In foundation recipe, use tarragon vinegar for this dressing and add 1 hard-cooked egg, chopped very fine.

Good on endive salad and cauliflower salad.

Parisian Dressing

To foundation recipe, add 2 tablespoons chopped green pepper, 2 tablespoons chopped red pepper, 2 tablespoons chopped celery, 1/2 tablespoon chopped onion, and 1/2 tablespoon chopped parsley.

Good on a salad of julienned cabbage, carrots, and green pepper or a lettuce and watercress salad.

These variations and pairings provide a launching point for dreaming up your own varieties. Tonight I'm doing a variation of the Spinosa Dressing. I don't have capers, but I do have stuffed green olives and fresh parsley. I'll be using this dressing on the garden lettuce and grocery store tomato I have. 

After whipping up a batch of the basic French dressing, shop your fridge, garden, and pantry, then create interesting and tasty salads: perhaps a little mayo, sour cream, or plain yogurt for a creamy version; or, do an herb garden-themed dressing with whatever herbs you currently have in the garden or on the windowsill; or, perhaps a mash-up of the honey French and the mustard dressing for a sweet and tangy salad vibe.

The true beauty of a vintage master recipe like this isn't just the nostalgia—it's the flexibility. It teaches us to be resourceful cooks who look at what we already have on hand instead of running out to buy something new. It transforms a simple bowl of greens into something that feels special and intentional.

Your Turn: Are you a fan of making your own salad dressings from scratch, or do you have a favorite vintage family recipe that always makes an appearance on your dinner table? I would love to hear how you customize your salads—let’s swap our favorite kitchen shortcuts in the comments below!

edit: Tonight's salad was really tasty!