Ring in the Savings - January 2014 Frugal Chatter thread

[jasperandchar]

Well today is a pretty lazy day-so far we have taken down the tree, washed one load of clothes and shoveled the snow. Out to a friends for dinner tonight and leftover Chinese food for lunch so that takes care of the meals. The kids had homemade waffles for breakfast and that waffle maker we bought in August has been well used. We have gradually changed the white flour to 50% whole wheat to make them more nutritious. They especially love them with Nutella!

Enjoy your night off cooking , always nice when someone else does the cooking . Sounds like you got a lot of use out of your waffle make, great investment and healthier than the store purchased eggos/waffles

[jasperandchar]

Happy New Year friends!

Rang in the New Year watching Netflix with DH. It was perfect.

I accidentally left the garage open last night and we had an opportunist burglary…most items we won't miss too much (one tool of my DH's we will have to replace). Not enough to even consider insurance. It could have been much worse, so I am grateful. I hope 2014 brings our "robber" face to face with karma.

I look at the world and people through rose-coloured glasses. I would not even consider going into someone's garage at night if it were left open. I would not even, until now, consider knocking on the door to let them know.

Happy New Yea Granger! What a crappy thing for someone to do, good grief

[LuvToUseCoupons]

Hi All,
May this be the year of lots of saving for us.
May it be a frugal year, and hopefully I will stay within my budget (limit).
If I can do that then it will be a better year.
Wishing everyone success in whatever your goal for 2014 is.

[lizzie bargain]

Just looked at my grocery spending for the year and it came to $567 per month for 2 adults and a teen girl-now if it was a boy I am sure it would be higher! 2 of us were away for the first 6 weeks of the year and we added a 10 year old student for the last 4 months of the year so I figure on average we fed 3 people per month Anyway I am happy with that and if I can keep it under 600-650 per month for next year that will be good. We will be feeding 4 until the end of June when our student returns to Korea. I realize some people do very well and spend less and others more but I am happy with the variety we eat and our budget allows this. I was just chatting to a friend the other day whose friend moved from Calgary to Toronto and found groceries were definitely cheaper there-although I am sure there are other things that might cost more. Any $ shaved off our food budget go into the travel fund so that is good motivation to try and shop frugally!

[LuvToUseCoupons]

Yesterday I caught a ride with dh to a town where there was a NF & well I didn't get to use all the coupons I wanted because of lack of stock or items they just didn't stock I still did extremely well.

I got 8 packs of peal meal bacon (big slabs of meat not sliced) on for $3.00 a pack . I spoke with dh and said you know I should run back in and get a few more packs, he said go ahead, there were none left but they replaced with PC air chilled, grain fed chickens that were marked down from $10-12.00 for $2.00 & $3.00 so grabbed 11 and they also have the utitlity turkeys on for .75lbs which I was glad to see as I was not able to get any around Christmas time so I grabbed 4. So all in all I got a huge meat order (8 pea meal bacon, 11 whole fresh grain fed chickens, 4 turkeys) and stocked up on Lipton dry soups, sidekicks (for my lazy days) and a got free OIKOS, 1 using an FPC and the other 2 using $2.00 as they were marked down to $1.00 each x 2 = FREE.

So the freezer is well stocked coming into 2014 now I only need a good sale on ground beef.

Hope everyone has a great start to the new year, enjoy your day

Great job on the meat sale....
Love the fact that you stocked up when you saw that it was a great price.
We are a big meal eater too. And I need a great sale on "real meat"...I did stock up on the Janes chicken this week that Walmart has on sale, so lots of nuggets in the freezer....hoping to pick up some ribs at NF tomorrow before that sale ends...but like you, I would love to see ground beef, and some chicken and pork on sale, oh and I all so stock up on some bacon from FB.
Great job!

[Granger]

Time to wake the kids up from their naps so they will go to bed tonight. Had I known they were going to sleep this long I would have joined them.

[LuvToUseCoupons]

morning all.
I have lots of plans and hopes for this year. I have some serious debt and it needs to be attacked. So every pennies has a use. Frugal is fun.

I can totally relate...that is why my goal for this year is to stay within my budget.
Totally agree with you that each penny has a use.
Good luck with your goal this year.

[LuvToUseCoupons]

Happy New Year friends!

Rang in the New Year watching Netflix with DH. It was perfect.

I accidentally left the garage open last night and we had an opportunist burglary…most items we won't miss too much (one tool of my DH's we will have to replace). Not enough to even consider insurance. It could have been much worse, so I am grateful. I hope 2014 brings our "robber" face to face with karma.

I look at the world and people through rose-coloured glasses. I would not even consider going into someone's garage at night if it were left open. I would not even, until now, consider knocking on the door to let them know.

Wow..
Sorry to hear that happen to you.
Hugs....

[jasperandchar]

Time to wake the kids up from their naps so they will go to bed tonight. Had I known they were going to sleep this long I would have joined them.

kids are so unpredictable but had you lied down they would have had power naps (lol) atleast you got some peace and quiet for a while.

[jasperandchar]

HI all so I decided to make bread this am with my kitchenaid mixer, ended up making 1 loaf, 6 single buns (wanted to see if the recipe was good to use as buns) and 5 pieces of bannock (deep fried bread), it turned out wonderful and so tasty.

I used the basic white bread recipe that came with the mixer.

In-laws invited us over for dinner (chicken - lol) which was nice to have the night off from cooking.

Now watching exteme cheapskakes on TLC .

So I have narrowed down my goals challenges for this year and they are:

1 new recipe per week
pay off or down LOC as much as possible
continue on with the projects that I can do myself

but I think I was trying to do too many or wanted to do too many challenges for 2014 so decided to start small and work my way up if possible.

[coupon girl]

jasper my goal is the same stick to frugal shopping-already got a few gifts boxing day at shoppers for the girls birthdays
-pay down loc loan
-lets hope n more expenses-like cars/house leak creep up -knock on wood
-want to save for a much needed trip
-try to bake more cookies from scratch-even for the 2 of us-yummy

[jasperandchar]

jasper my goal is the same stick to frugal shopping-already got a few gifts boxing day at shoppers for the girls birthdays
-pay down loc loan
-lets hope n more expenses-like cars/house leak creep up -knock on wood
-want to save for a much needed trip
-try to bake more cookies from scratch-even for the 2 of us-yummy

Great goals coupon girl and yes knock on wood, best of luck to you and your family this year

[lilo0003]

I have been busy sorting through our stockpile. I think this year it will be my goal not to buy any body wash/shampoo for me unless it is free. I live in a house of men and I have 4 times more health and beauty stuff.
I did a turkey for dinner, I needed the freezer space for the Janes chicken

[avoncallingu]

Happy New Year, everyone! I'm so glad we have this thread - more encouragement to make the frugal choice! Sorry about your losses, Granger!
Dh and I have made a pact - REAL consideration of "non-essentials" before we buy.

[Crochetlady]

I have a confession. On the first day of the new year, I`ve already blown it. Ordered a Sh!t load of books from book outlet. Their 25% off sale ended today and I was able to finish a couple sets that I had started. I still have about 60 books on my wishlist but I know I won`t be getting all of them.