September 2016 Frugal Chatter Thread - ALL Welcome!!

[SassyAshley]

Where we live we can only have electric heating and honestly it is just an uphill battle. Our houses are not insulated properly and do not have enough rads in them so ours run pretty much 24/7. On our main floor our Living room and Dinning Room is one long room on the left side of the house, the right side is Kitchen, Hallway and Stairs but there are no rads on the right side so the ones on the left side run 24/7 to keep this area warm. There were also no heaters in any of the basements, the owners before us put in one rad which again run 24/7 to heat the basement.

Other neighbours have tried other heating methods and said they only increased their hydro bills even more. For us we do everything off peak, heaters are on all the time but set quite low and we layer clothing and have blankets all over the house to cuddle up under. Even with all of this our hydro bills still triple if not quadruple in winter.

[coupon girl]

giseledta-I try to do everything cooking -batch stuff/baking on weekends or after 7.00 p.m at night ,I have hung my laundry outside all summer -just using the dryer last night and today -woke up at 4.30 coughing with this chest infection -I have taken a few pills already -but on Wednesday high fever -so didn't get anything done so since I am walking up early I do laundry then
so glad my air is off too my hydro /water bill they are combined was $395 in august-I live in a 2 storey 3 bedroom home -so about 60.00 more than last year at this time .I may have to send hubby out for a few groceries in a few days til I feel better

[Frugalbigmama]

good morning all. what a amazing day. it has rained all night, and the forecast is for more rain.....
I am just happy my ac is off.

so my QOTD , if noone minds....

how are you combating the price of electricty , and the potential increase in natural gas prices.....

yes, this has been weighing on my mind.


my frugal win for the day. I grew hot peppers in my garden. 2 plants, they have produced over 100 peppers, tiny little red ones. I am drying them. plants cost 2.50 ( 1.25 each) I put 6 of these little infernos in my chili yesterday instead of chili powder... ( next time I will put in 4........hot!!!) I dont need to buy chili seasoning for the winter. next year I will only grow 1 plant. and the chili tasted so good. !!!! leftovers tonight for supper. !!

I've been thinking about it too! I am really going to get back to turning the stat down when we leave the house in the morning. I am also going to winter proof some windows (the plastic to keep drafts out)

[sweet sparrow]

Today was a financial day for me. Paid off all our credit cards.

how are you combating the price of electricty , and the potential increase in natural gas prices.....

It's a battle for me as well. DH insists that turning off the computer and turning it back on wastes more energy. He leaves it on all day. If I didn't turn it off at night, it would be on 24 hours, all the time. When he comes back from a run outside, he cranks the temperature to polar bear levels. Up to a few nights ago, he turned on both a ceiling fan and a portable fan in the bedroom and had them both running with the air conditioner on. I don't find that fans reduce our energy consumption at all.

If it were left up to me, I'd probably unplug things like the computer, microwave, and TV overnight.

So, I have to roll with the increases and find other ways to save, like paying all the bills on time and keeping our library books renewed.

We used to weather-proof our windows in the winter, but since we replaced the patio door and bathroom window for insulated windows, we haven't. The glue was really unpleasant to remove.

[Frugalbigmama]

Oil change and computer software update done on my vehicle today. They washed it too! Now to clean out the inside and decide when to put winter tires on lol.

[saundyl]

Happy belated Birthday Nancy

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[avoncallingu]

J&C- Happy Happy Birthday (belatedly )! I miss you being here more often - but I know life gets in the way!
Should be hunting time up by you soon, right?


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[lilo0003]

FBM: we need to buy snow tires for two cars this year. Ugh. DH has a new car and its a smaller car so we know we need the snow tires. I drive an SUV and with the last two years being mild I just did not get around to snow tires. But the weather in Southern Ontario can be unpredictably and my dad is not well so I need to be ready to drive to London at a moments notice and their winters are a special kind of madness.
Giseledta: we are in the same boat. I don't know what more I can do to reduce costs. We did buy a power bar with timer for the basement TV and the gaming systems. So far we have not put on the timer but we do have the kids conditioned to turn off the power bar when they leave it and that shuts off all power to the TV & both consoles. I also double check the basement before bed to see no lights are on. We put a motion sensor light & fan in the bathroom downstairs as they were always leaving a light on and closing the door so no one would notice.

[sweet sparrow]

We did buy a power bar with timer for the basement TV and the gaming systems. So far we have not put on the timer but we do have the kids conditioned to turn off the power bar when they leave it and that shuts off all power to the TV & both consoles.

@lilo0003 : I think I need a few of those power bars. Where did you get them from?

I think you also mentioned that your kids have backpacks that have lasted quite a few years. Do you happen to remember where they were purchased from?

[Frugalbigmama]

FBM: we need to buy snow tires for two cars this year. Ugh. DH has a new car and its a smaller car so we know we need the snow tires. I drive an SUV and with the last two years being mild I just did not get around to snow tires. But the weather in Southern Ontario can be unpredictably and my dad is not well so I need to be ready to drive to London at a moments notice and their winters are a special kind of madness.
Giseledta: we are in the same boat. I don't know what more I can do to reduce costs. We did buy a power bar with timer for the basement TV and the gaming systems. So far we have not put on the timer but we do have the kids conditioned to turn off the power bar when they leave it and that shuts off all power to the TV & both consoles. I also double check the basement before bed to see no lights are on. We put a motion sensor light & fan in the bathroom downstairs as they were always leaving a light on and closing the door so no one would notice.

I bought a new SUV last year too that's why I needed new tires. And because it has the "special" tire problem identifier I bought the special rims so the light wouldn't be on all winter long! I better get at least 5 years out of them since they cost a fortune

[Frugalbigmama]

FBM: we need to buy snow tires for two cars this year. Ugh. DH has a new car and its a smaller car so we know we need the snow tires. I drive an SUV and with the last two years being mild I just did not get around to snow tires. But the weather in Southern Ontario can be unpredictably and my dad is not well so I need to be ready to drive to London at a moments notice and their winters are a special kind of madness.
Giseledta: we are in the same boat. I don't know what more I can do to reduce costs. We did buy a power bar with timer for the basement TV and the gaming systems. So far we have not put on the timer but we do have the kids conditioned to turn off the power bar when they leave it and that shuts off all power to the TV & both consoles. I also double check the basement before bed to see no lights are on. We put a motion sensor light & fan in the bathroom downstairs as they were always leaving a light on and closing the door so no one would notice.

oh I like the idea of a motion sensor light! I may have to look into this!!

[lilo0003]

I bought the power bar at Canadian Tire in the spring with the save on energy coupon. Not sure if this is in the next round of coupons but there is another set starting soon. I will see if I can find the thread. I love that I can walk buy it and see if its on, so super easy to turn off. Our older son uses the Swiss Army backpack from Costco. It was 60.00 but he used it for 5 yrs & it has a laptop spot. Its a big bag so not good for younger kids but he started with it at 11 yrs old. This year he felt the bag was tired looking and it does have a slight hole so I gave him my bag (same bag bought at the same time). I had stopped using it as it was just too big for the GO train and I can use his old one on the few occasions I need one. This my frugal kid, did not care if he had new just as long as it still looked good. The younger child has a Jan sport bag. They have a lifetime warranty & he found the Swiss Army too big. I got a stunningly good deal on the bag. It sells for 80.00 US and I paid 28.00 so it was too good to pass up.
the other thing we have done is talked to the kids about hydro and the impact to the budget. It used to annoy me to have dad yell at me about lights, but when we said to kids here is what we paid last year, vs now and here is the impact they kind of get it. 100.00 a month is dinner out for the 4 of us. I am doing a lot less yelling about the lights.

[Angela273]

It was a beautiful day here today, so we took advantage of the calm weather. Our son went to Pre-K, so I took my daycare kids and the twins to our back yard. The babies got particularly filthy. I was surprised by the number of ripe tomatoes that we found. We snacked on cherry tomatoes and carrots. I pulled some weeds that I missed yesterday. We walked down to pick my son up from Pre-K when his morning was over. We had roast chicken wraps for lunch. I washed and dried one load of laundry today. I folded 3 loads of laundry during nap time.

[saundyl]

@lilo0003 : I think I need a few of those power bars. Where did you get them from?

I think you also mentioned that your kids have backpacks that have lasted quite a few years. Do you happen to remember where they were purchased from?

We got a power bar at the source that turns the power to everything off when you turn off the "master" device which is our tv so the surround sound soubd and ps4 turn off when the tv is off. We had the satellite on it too until we got the pvr which if course doesnt record if there is no power to it.

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[sweet sparrow]

I bought the power bar at Canadian Tire in the spring with the save on energy coupon. Not sure if this is in the next round of coupons but there is another set starting soon. I will see if I can find the thread. I love that I can walk buy it and see if its on, so super easy to turn off. Our older son uses the Swiss Army backpack from Costco. It was 60.00 but he used it for 5 yrs & it has a laptop spot. Its a big bag so not good for younger kids but he started with it at 11 yrs old. This year he felt the bag was tired looking and it does have a slight hole so I gave him my bag (same bag bought at the same time). I had stopped using it as it was just too big for the GO train and I can use his old one on the few occasions I need one. This my frugal kid, did not care if he had new just as long as it still looked good. The younger child has a Jan sport bag. They have a lifetime warranty & he found the Swiss Army too big. I got a stunningly good deal on the bag. It sells for 80.00 US and I paid 28.00 so it was too good to pass up.

I think I will definitely pick up one or two power bars soon. I suppose all hardware stores have them? I think there is a $4 coupon out, which will certainly be welcome.

My co-worker had the Swiss Army backpack from Costco. He was demonstrating all it's features just this week. Another had a fancy Arcterex ($120), but I ended up ordering a Jansport. It was within $5 of the Costco one, and also has a waist strap. It's supposed to arrive tomorrow!