August Frugal chatter

[cdngal75]

Any fiscal flex room that we had for this month... well it is gone. Our puppy, Pongo, developed an infection in his hind paws, all pussy and gross. We had him in a daycare/ night kennel while we where in TO with DS' surgery. While he was out playing with the other pups, he injured his back paw pads. When we picked him up we noticed at home, they were fresh wounds. We bathed and washed, but they got infected. Last night they were really awful. He wouldn't move and stopped eating and drinking. So, DH rushed him off to the emergency clinic and they treated him. He is now on antibiotics, wearing a cone and we are cleaning the paws with epsom salted water every 12 hrs. The poor puppy. Both him and DS are in recovery on the couch!

DS is fairing better. He is already breathing better (yeah!) but his throat is so very sore, and he is refusing medicine. (He doesn't like the way it makes him feel.) Poor thing. He is only eating one meal a day, and I have to almost force him to sip on something every half hour. But his colour is good, and he does get up to play a bit. Children are so resilient! I wish I was.

Sounds like you should ask the kennel about paying the bill if the injury happened on their watch. Kennels have insurance for these things. I hope your dog is better soon.

[cdngal75]

Hung the clothes out to dry, did groceries again with ds#2 - so I am way way overbudget as I did my normal groceries on Wed. so I am about $150.00 over budget on groceries so far....hoping the next few weeks have crappy sales (lol) not really as I still need to stock up on ground beef. I spent $110.00 on steak (freezer stock up) my plan is to have steak on every other Sat. and we are stocked up until Christmas time but it hurts to have had to pay it out all at once. Hope everyone is having a great day. I'm kinda of upset with the family "project freshstart" as when we went to deliver items on Tuesday she had to pry the guy off the PS3 she proudly told me but then mentioned it was being borrowed from his dad. I don't if I should believe that or not but none the less when I first starting getting furniture donations the list was minimal but has since increased by leaps and bounds as she is now claiming that all the furniture that they did have (which I was led to believe they didn't have any) is borrowed and needs to be returned. So I ask you ladies is enough enough? what should I do? Should I continue to get them donations which in my opinion are really not needed as they have furniture???

I would slowly start pulling away and let them move on with their lives. It is disheartening to think that you may have been used or lied to. It was great of you to help, but the list of "needs" may never end.

[jasperandchar]

I would slowly start pulling away and let them move on with their lives. It is disheartening to think that you may have been used or lied to. It was great of you to help, but the list of "needs" may never end.

thanks for your feedback it's greatly appreciated

[Crochetlady]

J & C- I agree with the others, trust your instincts. You have done a lot and it seems like you are doing more than the couple is doing. That to me would be a huge concern. If I am helping someone in need I would hope they are working just as hard as I am.

Me too. I usually try to listen to my gut instincts.

[jasperandchar]

Me too. I usually try to listen to my gut instincts.

thanks Crochetlady for your feedback it's appreciated.

[jasperandchar]

Well my dh and ds#1 left on Friday for the moose camp and tomorrow my FIL and my ds#2 will be heading up. DS#2 will be sleeping at the inlaws tonight. Then I will be alone until Thursday pm and believe it or not I'm not looking to it as I am already lonely without dh & ds#1 and of course Chester the puppy. So I guess the next few days will be girls days & nights (me and Charlotte the bulldog). I have been dragging my butt lately....

[lighthousejen]

Well having a great day so far. Me and my DH wanted to take the kids out somewhere as a family since we both had the day off (almost never happens!!). But the budget doesn't alot for any spending, so thought we would take the kids down to the local harbour. The kids played in the huge playground, we walked along the warf and then decided to see if the museum and lighthouse was open. Well it was and the kids had a blast coloring and doing art, while hubby and I looked at some free books (one of them all about lighthouses.....which I collect). And I joked with my hubby about what a great day we had and we didn't even spend a dime, actually we made a dime because our daughter found one on the ground. lol. Now I off to try and make homemade dog food for the first time...........wish me luck

[avoncallingu]

not very frugal but still pleased with today. I just purchased our theatre tickets for when we are in the UK and they have a free event for children in August so for the cost of 2 tickets all 4 of us are going to see We will Rock You. Even the boys are huge Queen fans. Amex totally ticked me off as I was booking it declined my card, most likely as I used it yesterday to book the Harry Potter tour, we are going on our youngest 10th birthday. They will be so excited. So I use Swag Bucks to search Amex to see what's up with my card and I win 20 SB. Everything is fine so I call them and the agent reports it was f l a gged because of yesterdays purchase. Gee why don't you call and advise me then and make sure everything is OK. So she tells me it is cleared to use for ticket master. um no I already used another card. Now I must remember to take that card with me. Next DH is buying the football tickets as the premier league starts its season just as we arrive. This is why I coupon... we have saved for the past year for this trip and it is going to be awesome.

Sounds like a WONDERFUL trip you have planned.

[avoncallingu]

Hung the clothes out to dry, did groceries again with ds#2 - so I am way way overbudget as I did my normal groceries on Wed. so I am about $150.00 over budget on groceries so far....hoping the next few weeks have crappy sales (lol) not really as I still need to stock up on ground beef. I spent $110.00 on steak (freezer stock up) my plan is to have steak on every other Sat. and we are stocked up until Christmas time but it hurts to have had to pay it out all at once. Hope everyone is having a great day. I'm kinda of upset with the family "project freshstart" as when we went to deliver items on Tuesday she had to pry the guy off the PS3 she proudly told me but then mentioned it was being borrowed from his dad. I don't if I should believe that or not but none the less when I first starting getting furniture donations the list was minimal but has since increased by leaps and bounds as she is now claiming that all the furniture that they did have (which I was led to believe they didn't have any) is borrowed and needs to be returned. So I ask you ladies is enough enough? what should I do? Should I continue to get them donations which in my opinion are really not needed as they have furniture???

Wow! Good for you on the steaks!
WRT the furniture donations. Perhaps you could let them know that you'll find them some more when they are in need - ie. after they have to return the "borrowed" stuff.

[sweet sparrow]

She said the PS3 was borrowed but I don't know anyone kids or adults that have a game systems that could or would be willing to lend it out (this is in the circles of people I know) and those things are not cheap like $300.00 or so plus the games and whatever.

She also told me that the bell satelitte people were out but couldn't do the install that day . Plus they have a landline & internet which are not cheap.

We just got satelitte in December 2012 and it's expensive.

I was told that the leather couch they have which looks pretty new is borrowed and the person wants it back. This was only told to me once I started bringing them donations of furniture and now she tells me they need a couch. I told her straight out the big stuff like couch, freezers, mattress no way as my dh had back surgery. Yet today when I pointed out that there is someone on freecycle local emptying a cottage and is giving all contents which would fill a cottage/house she said I'll take....and I said no I told her to arrange to get someone they know to pick the items up for them (it was a freezer, table, vacuum++) I am almost positive that they won't make arrangement to get the stuff.

Wow, that seems excessive. If they have better things than you do, I think you need to stop. We're not destitute but DH has had his eye on a PS3 for years and years. I bought him an XBox 360 nearly five years ago because it was half the cost. A leather couch is also on the list, but also not on the near radar. Our microfibre couch with a tear in the back was donated by kind friends who couldn't fit it into their basement. They even lent us their steamer to clean it with.

We have Bell internet and a landline and those were expensive enough. I drew the line at satellite. If they can afford three different services from Bell, they're doing just fine on their own. There are some things we try to be frugal on, but there are a lot of things we don't have (like chairs for our dining table, a vacuum cleaner, a bed, etc.) because we're slowly saving up for them. I don't know the situation personally and I hope I'm wrong, but it sounds like they want everything and don't want to work towards anything.

[sweet sparrow]

I don't know how frugal we've been doing. LO has been putting us through the paces. Cloth diapers during the day, disposables at night to wick away the moisture. So far, we've saved a few diapers from landfill, but I find with the disposables, we'd change her and she'd soil a diaper almost right away. Just now, she went through two extra diapers after a feeding. Three diaper changes in one sitting and if there are eight (minimum) feedings a day, that would be 24 diapers! That's nuts.

Then there's all the work involved in scrubbing the cloth diapers, soap, water, then operating the washing machine, ... I wonder if it's really saving anything?

[sweet sparrow]

One unexpected expense so far is our LO's birth certificate. I didn't know they were $35!

[Angela273]

I don't know how frugal we've been doing. LO has been putting us through the paces. Cloth diapers during the day, disposables at night to wick away the moisture. So far, we've saved a few diapers from landfill, but I find with the disposables, we'd change her and she'd soil a diaper almost right away. Just now, she went through two extra diapers after a feeding. Three diaper changes in one sitting and if there are eight (minimum) feedings a day, that would be 24 diapers! That's nuts.

Then there's all the work involved in scrubbing the cloth diapers, soap, water, then operating the washing machine, ... I wonder if it's really saving anything?

I certainly understand. My youngest brother was 10yrs old when we had our son last September. My mom still had bins of the old style cloth diapers that she offered to us. Dh and I had chosen to use disposables. Our LO has sensitive skin. He is allergic to Pampers wipes and Life Brand diapers (given to us). Luckily he has not reacted to either Huggies or Pampers diapers, although he has certainly leaked out of them enough times. He routinely had explosive poops up his backside...didn't matter what we did or the type of diapers he wore. Pampers sent us some nice coupons when I had some serious issues with their products, and LO still usually wears Pampers diapers. LO is exclusively bf and was notorious for having a poop that corresponded with nursing when he was quite young. You might want to give this a try and see if it helps some. I would intentionally wait until after he had a poop, just after nursing and then I would change him. This saved us a lot of diapers. He is a little boy, so I also had the frustration of him peeing on us (or the fresh diapers) when changing his bum.

We had the same question regarding cloth diapers. If we had been offered "newer" diapers (the ones mom offered had gone threw several children...I remember assembling these diapers when I was younger) then I might have considered cloth diapers a little more than I did. As it is, I do coupons and sales. I stock up on tubs of Huggies wipes at NF and use coupons...which makes the tub of wipes a little over $1 each, typically. When I was pregnant with LO I stacked Huggies diaper coupons and had a collection in his bedroom closet. Unfortunately I don't think Huggies coupons are stackable anymore, plus LD is 2+hrs away from us. There are no SOF stores in SK (as far as I know).

[Angela273]

One unexpected expense so far is our LO's birth certificate. I didn't know they were $35!

Yes, I certainly did not know just how expensive LO's birth certificate would be. I was told that we needed the long form because it is required for LO to get his passport later in life. I would have hoped that the government would provide the first birth certificate for free, or a nominal fee...but that just isn't the case.

[sweet sparrow]

Yes, I certainly did not know just how expensive LO's birth certificate would be. I was told that we needed the long form because it is required for LO to get his passport later in life. I would have hoped that the government would provide the first birth certificate for free, or a nominal fee...but that just isn't the case.

Government recently relaxed their requirements for a passport renewal. DH had to travel to the town we were born in to find our old school principal to be one of the signatures on his first passport. Our old principal is now the mayor (yes, our town is really *that* small ) so it wasn't too hard to track him down. I find it strange that a registered birth in Canada with both parents as Canadian citizens would now require a long form (extra charge) birth certificate to be able to leave the country and come back.

The library card that I got for free in our little town only charged for a replacement if you lost it. If it was damaged and you brought it in, it would be replaced for free. I noticed the card I have now with the barcode is starting to chip. On the back of the card, it says if damaged, there will be a replacement fee.

I miss all the little things we used to be able to get for free.