Serious September Savers Frugal Chatter

[blueeyetea]

Here's my catching up on the update I didn't get around to doing this weekend.

I was on vacation the last two-weeks of August. Hubby and I went to Boston and Cape Cod. Boston was for visiting relatives, along with shopping. My cousins know all the best places to shop and they took me to Kohl's where I was able to stock up on clothes for myself and hubby quite cheaply. For some odd reason, I always thought Kohl's was a hardware store, so never bothered to visit. That's changed now! Coming home, I looked it up, and there's a Kohl's in Watertown NY, where hubby and I go for the occasional shopping spree.

After our visit in Boston, we headed to Cape Cod where I had rented a cottage for the week. It also happened to coincide with my 10th wedding anniversary. Although I liked Cape Cod, I was seeing it through my frugal (and definitely older) eyes. The cottage we rented was reasonably priced, but this being Cape Cod, $1,000 gave us a cottage in a lot of condo cottages, with access to a lake. No view whatsoever, except the neighboring cottages 10 feet away. Having said that, it was still cheaper than renting a motel room or even renting an RV.

Overall, Cape Cod is for the rich, and Nantucket Island, that I visited for one day, is for the super rich. The cute little villages that tourist brochures brag about are always crowded and parking a nightmare. Beaches are free if you don't bring your car, but since there are no restaurants, so you have to bring a cooler chest with food if you plan on staying part of the day, along with chairs and a parasol. Then you get hit with a parking fee of $15 to $20. Souvenirs are outrageously prices, for example, a 3 oz jar of local cranbery jelly was $6, but they were flying off the shelf regardless. We did take two tours, one on Nantucket Island and another to go along the King's Highway and to Provincetown and they were reasonable prices and well worth the expense. When we weren't out, we did enjoy cooking our own food, fresh seafood from a store nearby, and paddle on the pond in a borrowed canoe. Overall, it was a nice vacation, but like I said, Cape Cod is too crowded and expensive for me to consider going back again. It's a bit of a tourist trap, really, and they see you coming. I'm wondering if it's my Canadian sensibility at work here.

Once back from my vacation, I had to present myself for jury duty where I was finally picked for a one-week trial. Again, I enjoyed my experience, but jury duty is a lot of hurry up and wait.

As for my goals this month, well, there's nothing like coming home and getting that first impression when you walk into your house after being gone for two weeks, and mine was "whoa, look at all this stuff and what a mess". I live in a very small house, so it's not hard to have piles grown on available surfaces, and on top of that, I've been slow in emptying my office/craft room for the painting I want to do this fall.

My weekends lately have been devoted to going through my stuff in my office; some stuff I'm keeping and moving to temporary storage in my basement, some I'm reorganizing and of course, some I'm getting rid of. Boy, does this take time! Just yesterday, I spent hours clearing the book case in my kitchen, the bookcase in the living room. Books, books, books everywhere. I love books, but still. Oh, and magazines too. It's making me very conscious how much room they take, and it won't stop me from buying them, but my next purchase is a Kindle so that I don't have to deal with moving books as much. (Reference books like knitting aren't all that well suited for electronic format, I find.)

[blueeyetea]

Well, I described part of my weekend in my previous post, i.e. the decluttering, but I did a bit of stockpiling on the weekend. Farm Boy was selling heads of cauliflower for $0.99 each, so I managed to buy 8 heads and put them away in my freezer. Cauliflower is a popular vegetable at my house, especially so now that I trying to stay away from potatoes, but I hate paying $4/head in the middle of winter.

Another thing on my mind is losing weight, and I've embarked last week on a low-card diet. Fall seems to be a good time for me to make such a resolution. That's another thing my vacation opened my eyes too: I'm way too addicted to starch, and once I give in, it starts a vicious circle where I'll start sneaking starches whenever I can, and next thing you know, it's all I think about, and when's the next opportunity to get my fix. Low-carb seems to be a solution for me. The first week is hard, but then I get into a groove, and I don't think about food every minute of the day.

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
Monday and back to work.

Yesterday I worked on one of my September goals which is less Take Out/Eating Out (I have to admit eating out is really losing it's appeal we do it way too often lately and how mom does it is beyond me since lately she is going out a few times a week when I am at work as well). Yesterday I made a batch of Beef Stew which will be my dinner tonight as well as possibly a dinner later in the week as mom has to make a display cake for work for Halloween (kind of weird to keep find black roses all over) as well as baby shower cake for the weekend (this thing is massive it has to fed 125+ guest, it is a cake plus something like 80 cupcakes). As well I roasted cauliflower for her to make another batch of roasted cauliflower soup which we will freeze. As well as some chopping.

Tonight I am going to attempt to make and freeze mini chicken parm meatballs (I think I will freeze these raw and than cook when we want them, afraid if I cook and freeze when we reheat they will dry out on me). I also want to cut up and prepare everything to make a stir fry later in the week we have some veggies to use up so I figure if we pull out a bag of shredded chicken or pork add to the veggies with some sauce out of the stockpile and serve it over rice.

I think I have covered almost every night this week so hopefully there will not attempts at ordering out.

[Frugalbigmama]

Good Morning Everyone! Hope everyone had a nice weekend. I survived the birthday party sleepover! Was very tired on Saturday but I'm alive. DS had a hockey game Sat and Sunday (both were local) so at least we didn't have to travel. My sister took us out for dinner on Sat night (she cashed in all her airmiles last year for Boston Pizza Gift cards and got over $700 worth) so she treated us Sunday I did laundry and sheets and hung lots out to dry. Still have some on the go so will finish up tonight. Didn't go shopping at all on the weekend! So will clean out the fridge and try and see what we have to use up and just get milk and fruit this week. Have tons of English muffins from the sale last week (and bought for the coupons in the package!) and DS loves a toasted one with a fried egg and cheese for breakfast so I will make that for him all week. Good protein for breakfast! Youngest likes eggs over easy so will make that for him this week. Now I just have to plan dinners!

[Frugalbigmama]

Good job! I'm voting for you for no take out all week! We make such wonderful meals at home that going out is always so disappointing. Keep up the great work!

Good Morning Everyone,
Monday and back to work.

Yesterday I worked on one of my September goals which is less Take Out/Eating Out (I have to admit eating out is really losing it's appeal we do it way too often lately and how mom does it is beyond me since lately she is going out a few times a week when I am at work as well). Yesterday I made a batch of Beef Stew which will be my dinner tonight as well as possibly a dinner later in the week as mom has to make a display cake for work for Halloween (kind of weird to keep find black roses all over) as well as baby shower cake for the weekend (this thing is massive it has to fed 125+ guest, it is a cake plus something like 80 cupcakes). As well I roasted cauliflower for her to make another batch of roasted cauliflower soup which we will freeze. As well as some chopping.

Tonight I am going to attempt to make and freeze mini chicken parm meatballs (I think I will freeze these raw and than cook when we want them, afraid if I cook and freeze when we reheat they will dry out on me). I also want to cut up and prepare everything to make a stir fry later in the week we have some veggies to use up so I figure if we pull out a bag of shredded chicken or pork add to the veggies with some sauce out of the stockpile and serve it over rice.

I think I have covered almost every night this week so hopefully there will not attempts at ordering out.

[cath007]

Good late morning everyone!!! I hope everyone had a great week end .I wish you all a great monday!!!! I Wake up later this morning because last night I had to take cough sirup as my sore troat is just gone bad,I have close to no voice,so I guess I will do my things today(no choice) and just try to go easy.

[Crochetlady]

happy anniversary crochetlady to you and hubby

Thank you. That`s the only time I`ve ever forgot it.

[cath007]

Thank you. That`s the only time I`ve ever forgot it.

Happy anniversary to you and your DH

[LuvToUseCoupons]

Just wanted to wish everyone a happy and frugal fall!

[Crochetlady]

Thank you everyone for your anniversary wishes. Last year we had a big party for our 25th. We were planning for it for months before. This year it just slipped our minds.

[thriftygranny]

Happy Anniversary CrochetLady!!

Sassy Ashley, great job of meal planning, lots of healthy food. I do precook my chicken meatballs but I think either way would work, they are so lean I think you could cook them from frozen right in the sauce.

Blueeyetea, sounds like a nice holiday and great tips on vacationing in that area! I have never been but it looks beautiful in pictures!I am with you on the carb thing, the more I eat the more I crave, but once you cut them out it takes about a week to stop craving them.I struggle not eating bread but it makes a huge difference in weight loss.

Cathy feel better soon, I had a rip roaring flu and still feeling a bit sluggish, I hope it isn't a sign of what my winter will be like.
Frugalbigmomma, glad your party went well and you survived it!!Enjoy your week.

[LuvToUseCoupons]

I just had a "DUH" moment. I`ve been so busy trying to replace all the stuff that got sold...haven`t even thought about the date. Just realized our 26th anniversary was on Thursday. DH didn`t mention it either so he most likely forgot too.

. Don't forget it's never too late to celebrate .

[Crochetlady]

Happy Anniversary CrochetLady!!

. Don't forget it's never too late to celebrate .

Thank you. We don`t usually do anything special...maybe a meal out but we`ve been eating out too much lately.

[Crochetlady]

Today will be a day of finishing some things that were started last week. Tomorrow I have to take a friend to Kitchener again for test at the hospital and then her Dr. appointment. Will be a long day. I usually take along something to work on since I have to sit and wait most of the day.

[MrsSunshine]

what a morning, spent 3 hours on the bus going from one end of town to the other trying to catch some deals.. ended up with one rain check.. and a huge disappointment in freshco.. they don't offer rain checks.. wish i'd stayed home.
oh well lesson learned.
thankfully the items i was looking for are easily obtained this time of year during sales. just have a dead line to get them. i'll be patient its always rewarded.