Just chilling in January (2015 frugal chatter)

[jasperandchar]

Tomorrow's plan is to strip the paint off those baseboards that I have been putting off (lol) since the September as they are now needed for Jaden's existing bedroom (soon to be Logan's room). I will remove the paint, sand and prime them all before end of the day so that dh can spray paint them (don't ask ) so they can hopefully be installed on Saturday or Sunday .

While I am working on the baseboards the plan is that dh will add more drywall mud on the ceiling in Jaden's soon to be new room and dh will also scuff the walls as some stain from the floor splashed on the walls so once scuffed/sanded dh will be able to touch-up the walls in a few days. His primary focus for the next few days will be the ceiling which needs more drywall mud and will need to be repainted, once that is done he will install the ceiling fan which we will be taking from the boys gaming area (so no expense needed there).

Well off to have a bite to eat and start my meal plan while looking at the flyers online

[saundyl]

I worked yesterday and today doing yearend. Regular work day tomorrow. Our visit with my family over Christmas went much too fast but its nice to be home and sleeping in our own bed again.

We went to the new years fireworks last night and then to bed. Picked up done groceries yesterday morning on our way home but have yet to unpack the back end of the truck.we will do that tonight.

On the weekend im going to go through coupons and dispose of expired ones. Also going to knit a bit. I got wool for a blanket for me for Christmas and i bought some to start presents for next year.

I reset my 52 week savings challenge plus added some eextra change into the jar. This year the full amount will go to Christmas as my car is only remaining at 250 owing and will be paid in fill by March.

[lizzie bargain]

Wow J and C-you are on a New Years high energy rennovating roll! No we don't have any grandkids but since we see lots of the 4 boys my husband calls them the grandkids. I see no reason you won't get 20x the points if you spend 50 before taxes as long as you are not buying any of their excluded things-like gift cards, Rx etc. Just double check when you go in as to what is excluded as it may vary from province to province-or read the fine print on your flyer.

[avoncallingu]

J and C. If you have any coupons, you don't have to deduct them from the original price to add up to $50. I'm not sure that made sense. So - If your total adds up to $51 and you have $3 worth of coupons for those products that you've bought - you can use them and you will STILL get the 20X if I am correct. But now I'm questioning myself. I'll have to check the Shoppers Drug Mart thread. Hope I haven't confused EVERYONE!!!

[Angela273]

So I've been slowly calling family members and telling them about my pregnancy. Dh doesn't want to tell his family yet, so none of them have been officially told...unless someone paid attention to one of dh's Facebook posts.

Today I went over to visit my 39wk pregnant neighbour. She greeted me with a comment of "are you sick again?" So I told her "shh I'm pregnant" haha. She is the daughter of a principal of the Catholic school down the street. I told her that because I am more sick with this pregnancy than I was with LO I plan on telling the both Catholic schools that I am pregnant when I come to teach for them later this month. She has no problem keeping it quiet from her dad. I was looking at my schedule and I currently do not have a single teaching day booked for January. It somewhat sucks because I prefer to have advance plans. Oh well, I'm sure I'll get some calls.

She sorted clothes this morning and had 3 garbage bags full for our LO. I sorted out the size 3+ clothes into a box that is already labeled for the shed. I have the rest waiting to go into the washing machine next. I always wash clothes that we are given, LO has sensitive skin. I really appreciate having clothes from her, it saves us a lot of money. My dad sent LO $100 for Christmas and told me not to buy toys with it, but rather clothes. It looks like LO might not need any new clothes. I think we will be able to put the entire amount of money straight into LO's savings account. He has a separate education fund that we put $100 a month into.

[avoncallingu]

J and C. If you have any coupons, you don't have to deduct them from the original price to add up to $50. I'm not sure that made sense. So - If your total adds up to $51 and you have $3 worth of coupons for those products that you've bought - you can use them and you will STILL get the 20X if I am correct. But now I'm questioning myself. I'll have to check the Shoppers Drug Mart thread. Hope I haven't confused EVERYONE!!! Yep! I just checked it. But you if you use an FPC coupon that doesn't count towards the $50. The cashier may try to tell you that you won't get the 20X the points as your subtotal will be less than $50, but you WILL get the 20X points. The computer does it.

[Crochetlady]

Happy New Year everyone. I`m finally back. Downloaded a game and ended up with what I thought was a virus. Really slowed down the computer and got lots of popups. Also kept getting kicked off SC because it was a forged site. Was going to take it to get cleaned next week but tonight I decided to see if there was something I could do myself. Found a bunch of newly installed junk so I uninstalled them and voila! Saved a bunch of $$$.

@ Angela Congrats on your pregnancy

J&C Wow you`re really in reno mode

Sounds like everyone did really well with financial goals in 2014. My goal for 2015 is the same...continue to pay off CC. I`m finally half way there.

[momof5boys]

Had a good family get together for New Years Day.....but I'm always left wondering why the same two people always end up doing the clean up and others sit on the couch and chat.....sigh...

[Crochetlady]

That always happened at my SIL too. She and I would spend most of the afternoon in the kitchen while her grown daughter and DIL would be playing games. When her grandkids were babies she was even expected to drop everything when they needed a diaper change.

[Natalka]

Hoping everyone has a wonderful Friday!

[jasperandchar]

Just saw on CBC news that top CEO's in Canada make an average of 9 million dollars and by Noon today (1.5 days) they make more than the average Canadian which is $47,0000.00....and they are only taxed at 1/2 rate....hmm....something seems unfair

[jasperandchar]

Had a good family get together for New Years Day.....but I'm always left wondering why the same two people always end up doing the clean up and others sit on the couch and chat.....sigh...

my mil doesn't help either, we went camping with them when my sons were 5 and 3 and never again, I think they thought they were at the Hilton, I had to cook all the food, wash all the dishes and pick up after them and we were staying an 20 foot trailer, what really pissed me off is she wanted to go and play bingo in the park we were staying in and wanted to know if I wanted to go....really???

So I now return the favour and sit on my ass when invited over for supper, FIL is starting to notice but I don't care

[jasperandchar]

crochetlady glad to hear it was not a health problem that kept you off the thread, Fantastic that you were able to fix your own computer problems saving a few bucks. I have stopped all updates on my laptop from windows as everytime an update was installed I would spend the day fixing the problems and doing system restores, dh is computer is now doing the same thing so I have stopped his updates as well and I have also noted a significant drop in our widthband (gigabytes) usages as well.

[jasperandchar]

Morning all,

I have a busy day planned, need to go and find the scraper to remove the paint from the baseboards and then I'm off to the races

Dh has decided he will install the part he had to replace on his snow blower as there is a storm forecasted in the next few days and something else but I will see if I can get him to do the mudding on the ceiling anyways.

Wishing everyone a fantastic day

[lizzie bargain]

Wth regard to cleaning up after dinners- my view is that it is okay not to help if you have the same arrangement for when they come to your house! That women who did all the work and was expected to change the babies diaper seems a bit extreme-either she wanted to do that or she just let others take advantage of her-you know what they say-you can change your own behaviour but not that of others.

J and C just curious and not meaning to be critical-but I have noticed a couple of times you said your MIL does not help you with clean up. It sounds like you have reached a reasonable solution in that you each clean up after dinner at your own house which works fine-but just curious-where are all the men and children in this-I have never heard you criticize your FIL for not helping clean up after a meal.

Perhaps I live in a family with less defined male/female roles but in my friends and family any male/female or child would be willing or asked to assist with prep or cleanup if needed-not just the females. Many hands make light work.

When the 4 year old boys were over yesterday I noticed they took their dishes to the dishwasher without prompting which was nice to see-but not one of the 2 month olds took their bottles to the dishwasher-lol