March 2016 Frugal Chatter

[Crochetlady]

@Crochetlady so sorry to hear you are still not feeling a 100%, have you booked a follow up appointment?

I don`t. Last time I had this the Dr. couldnt find anything wrong. My massage therapist did lymphatic drainage work so I`m going that route again. I go on Friday.

[Andit]

Good afternoon, everyone.

Just got home from the vet. Got the best prognosis possible - full recovery in a couple of weeks (well, slight limitations, cause my girl is a senior). Vet thinks she has fibrocartilaginous emboli - a piece of cartilage broke off and hit the spinal cord. If this is the case, Lily dog will be better in 2ish weeks. The vet was impressed that she was already walking on her own (sure sure, she can barely move her head when it's just us, and heaven forbid she should have anything but ham and cheese, but she'll happily walk over and accept kibble from the vet). Another possibility is that she had a sort of stroke. We got some anti-inflammitory meds to see if things improve a little faster and get her bounce back. She also needs to put on a bit of weight - she hasn't had much to eat the last few days and lost nearly 8lbs (if only I could lose weight as easily as she can ).

I had actually been trying to plan out how to make her last days with me happy ones, since things seemed very bleak. I am beyond relieved. I can finally get some sleep and get my appetite back after a week.

bff drove us there & back, & insisted on picking up a burger for Lily (I made her share it with Quincy cat). Poor girl is going to be crushed when she has to go back to eating kibble.

Lily is still a bit wobbly, so we have to take things slow, a speed Lily is not that fond of. I keep telling her it's only temporary, but she's convinced it's my fault (I suspect Quincy has been telling tales again).

Better go check on the invalid and her jealous roommate.

Hope everyone has a wonderful evening. Stay warm and dry (we hit a hail storm on the way home).

[Andit]

@Crochetlady

Please be careful. My Mom had a cough that appeared after a cold. 2 months later, it was still persisting, but she thought nothing of it, until it turned into pneumonia & knocked her for a loop. This is a lady who has not been to a hospital since I was born nearly a half century ago (darn that makes me feel old ).

[Crochetlady]

Crazy thing is I didn`t have a cold , only the cough . They did a chest xray to make sure it`s not pneumonia. today it`s worse again and even with rinsing my mouth it`s more sore again. Not too many foods I can eat.

[lilo0003]

Oh Crochetlady that does not sound good, hopefully they can figure it out.
i rummaged through the freezer tonight and so we had sort long forgotten tortellini for dinner, no one died and now I have leftovers for lunch.
Today we booked a rather spur of the moment vacation. Driving to south Carolina for a march break getaway. I love driving, give me my coffee and I am off.

[SassyAshley]

Crochetlady hope you feel better soon and they figure out what is going on

[sweet sparrow]

Good morning, everyone!
@Crochetlady : I echo everyone's sentiments and hope you're feeling better soon.

I'm with everyone else who's sick with "the cold that never ends". Lying down for rest just makes me completely unable to breathe from congestion. DH said he can't sleep for listening to me snoring. I corrected him that I never fell asleep, that was just me desperately trying to get air in my lungs. Colds and flus super suck!

Lately, it seems that money has been flying away like paper in strong winds. DH was driving home on the 400 the other day when something flew up from the car in front of him. He had cars on both sides so he could only brace himself for something black to hit the car. It smashed through the front bumper, tearing a huge hole in the bottom and struck the tire, bending the piece around the wheel well and making it scrape the tire all the way to work. It was $40 to unbend the wheel well at the mechanic. Days later, there was a strange sound in the car and DH took it to the dealership. The bearings on the wheels need to be replaced which will cost at least $1200. The car is in the shop today so we're waiting for the final bill.

I'm still considering private school for LO next year as it will mean we won't have to get another car. Daycare for public school may be around $6,000 - 8,000, but private school might be near $14,000 after uniforms, books, school trips, school lunches, etc., etc. We've been paying almost $14,000 for gently used cars because we've had better luck with them than the lemons we've had in the past. I've priced out insurance for a little hatchback at an extra $2,000 per year not including maintenance, winter tires, gas, etc. If we go the private school route, no second car and we can walk. If it's public school, the daycare option will cost $6 - 8,000, plus we'll need that second car since they open half an hour later. I'm torn.
@Granger : I totally agree with your comment in last month's thread feeling like you're working your tail off. Some days, it barely feels like we can keep our nose above water and we only have one child!

I suppose the frugalist option is to quit my job and move next to DH's workplace up north and home school. Argh.

[Angela273]

I'm taking the whole little family grocery shopping at Sobeys this morning because it is 10% off Tuesday. I have a few coupons, rebates, and a rain check that I am hoping to use. Our son will also get the free cookie from the bakery.

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
Made it through yesterday's system upgrade but must admit I was exhausted by the end of the day. Everything went well in my mind a few issues most of which where corrected within an hour but it was a long day of keeping up. At one point I was averaging 5 emails per minute between branches, support from our IT people and just regular daily emails. I was also lapping out building helping everyone sort through new screens and things being moved.

Needed things to be easy last night so just made a pasta bake for dinner which I had with a large salad, Mom skipped the salad and best of all there are leftovers so looks like most of the week will be taco salad for lunch, although I did just realize I forgot to bring some nachos for crunch for today oh well always tomorrow.

Alright well time to get back to the papers that are taking over my bros desk which I am using today as there is a meeting in my office, oh the joys of sharing an office with the board room.

Have a great day everyone

[Frugalbigmama]

Good morning! Well I guess we didn't get the big storm they were calling for.
After my work day I plan to get a quick dinner on the table. Clean the kitchen. Get on laundry at 7pm. Post one Rubbermaid bin of stuff for sale.
I am on a mission to clean out the for sale room so I can set it up as a tv/hang out room for DS. I already bought an amazing like new futon for a steal ($50 and it has the nice wood base not the crappy cheap metal base ) So I hope to really get posting stuff the next few nights. Too bad we are away on the weekend for pick ups but I will have to arrange for next week when I return. I will use the tv I had in my room in there for now but will be looking at buying a new tv down the road at RCSS on sale and on tax free day

[Angela273]

I wanted to update regarding the free knives from Sobeys. I hand washed our big 8" chef's knife along with our other dishes. I went to put them all away 9hrs later and discovered a large rust spot in the side of the new knife blade necquse a plastic flippers had pooled water on it. I like the knife, but I'm not impressed with the prospect of easily rusting. I thought I would let other members know.

[sweet sparrow]

@Angela273 : Is there any sort of warranty on the knives? When DH and I got married, we bought a Wusthof 4.5" paring knife. DH fell in love with the look of them so we splurged with our wedding money. They were discontinued within a few years and one of the logo pieces fell off. It never turned up so I can only assume it went down the sink and down the drain. It was only held on with glue so I called Wusthof and asked if they kept spares of the logo around. (I always think the worst the company can do is say no.) They told me to send the knife back and they would see what they could do.

I paid for postage and used the scale at work to weigh the package. For some reason, weighing it at work always seems to be less than CP because they want to add in fancy packaging. I'm already sending a damaged product, so I don't see why I should bubble wrap it. Anyways, after a nice letter about how great the knife has been over the last few years, they responded within a few weeks with a brand new knife!

If it's a good manufacturer, there may be a way to get it replaced at little or no cost.

[sweet sparrow]

@coupongirl : Your adventures with Ashlyn make me smile. LO wakes at 8 AM too, but my friends tell me I should thank my lucky stars as theirs wake at 6 AM or earlier, every day. I think I'm in that perpetual state of exhaustion when I'm home with LO, but I don't notice because it's the new normal.

So far, LO has been quite good while out shopping. I've been lucky. She has not asked for anything or grabbed at anything and I let her hold the coupons or the gift card/credit card so she can pay the lady. With her long, uncut, dark wavy hair down to her waist and deep dark eyes, she manages to get quite a few strangers trying to touch her face. I freak out internally because I'm treating her face for eczema and have to give her a wash when we're home (her medication is very sticky and I have horrid visions of the cold/flu germs or other germs now crawling all over her face). I think I need to carry wipes while we're out. Sigh.

This weather has not been kind this past week. Trying to get LO home in the cold was awful yesterday. There were little pellets of hard snow hitting her face so I offered her the stroller cover. She accepted but cried for it to be taken off when the wind whipped it under the hood of the stroller, bothering her face. I took it off and stuffed it beneath to hurry her onto the bus. I think when we got off the second bus, the huge blasts of wind ripped it out of the basket and carried it away. The sound of the wind blocked out me hearing it flying away, not that I could have possibly chased it anyways.

When we got home, LO cried when she heard it was gone and she no longer had it. She wanted to go out looking for it, but it would have been just inhumane. The sounds of the winds against the windows was so loud...

DH is home today, waiting for the car repairs, so we'll have a ride in this lovely weather. He's going to walk up and down the street to see if he can spot the cover in case it blows up against a tree or house. Otherwise, it's another $20 for yet another item lost to the wind. That was an expensive trip home yesterday including the bus fare.

[Frugalbigmama]

I have my man trained right! lol. He just called me saying he was in No Frills and they had the Pork/beef blend marked down to $1.66 LB and said "I know we don't like this (since we don't truly know the percentage of beef/pork ratio) but for this price we can make a crap load of burgers for the freezer. He said there were approx. 12 family packs averaging $5 a pack. I said buy them all lol. He just texted me that he bought 6. So we can have bbq burgers for the next while cheaply.

[Shwa Girl]

just finished clearing the snow
good workout -- 30 minutes
and free