Ring in the Savings - January 2014 Frugal Chatter thread

Ring in the Savings - January 2014 Frugal Chatter thread

This thread is for all who want to reduce their costs if possible, share $ saving tips (recipes - food/cleaners), and anything else that you would love to share with the group.

The chatter thread was started in February 2013 originally by FallenPixels and since many of us on SC loved the idea of a place to go post or ups & downs of living, etc.

Anyone & everyone is welcome to take part in this chatter thread

_____________________________

Name submissions for February chatter

Insane - Frugal February-the sequel



lilo0003 - February...May the Frugal be with you



Cochetlady - Frugal Divas



Natalka
February name - :love4:

Frugal Lovers

Loving the Savings


macw1960

Fired Up For February's Finds

LuvToUseCoupons
Frigid Frugal Divas.
Frigid Frugal February.
Frigid Frugal Savings.

Reserved

Happy New Year Everyone.

My goal for the New Year is to re find me after everything from last year and the first step is getting my coupons and stockpiles back in order.

I have a load of laundry going and am cleaning out my coupons. I will be positing any January Expiry I have that I will not be using for whoever can use them either later today or tomorrow.

Hope everyone has a great day.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by SassyAshley

Happy New Year Everyone.

My goal for the New Year is to re find me after everything from last year and the first step is getting my coupons and stockpiles back in order.

I have a load of laundry going and am cleaning out my coupons. I will be positing any January Expiry I have that I will not be using for whoever can use them either later today or tomorrow.

Hope everyone has a great day.

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Happy New Yea to you Ashely, what a ride 2013 was, hoping you & your mom a very wonderful 2014.

PS how are you feeling these days?

good morning and a VERY Happy New year to everyone.
doing the same thing here, laundry and cleaning up corners.
I really hope I can get our monthly grocery budget under $500 a month here. OMG..
as well as implementing meal planning. I know dh does not eat dinners during the week, so its going to be just the kids and I. easy and cheap meals will work. as for weekends. there is SO much in the freezer to use up.
the only thing i really purchase fresh is milk, eggs, bread. anyone know where I can invest in a cow. LOL. my son goes through at least a 4L bag every day to two days.. i think i may implement a rule for him, if he wants a drink its a $.50.. bowl of cereal is $1. maybe this will prevent him from helping himself to 2-3 LARGE bowls of cereal anytime he wants it.
once dh and I get spare a weekend and get some rhubarb/strawberry jam made.. i'll have 3/4 of my freezer back.
maybe then stock up on bread too.
anyway. have a good day all.

Hi everyone,

Wishing each and everyone a prosperous & healthy New Year.

What a ride & journey 2013 was for most of us on the Frugal Chatter thead, with the ups & downs & unexpected expenses that arised but fortunately it was nice in my opinion to have the friends on here to bounce ideas, offer advice and kindness to put our minds to ease. AND The joyous births of the new babies like another SC member mentioned in Dec. thread.

May you achieve all the things you wish to accomplish or wish to learn in this 1st day of 2014.

___________

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 :shock:. 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

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.

Wow Nancy! That is a lot of meat for the freezer. I cooked a turkey yesterday so will make some freezer meals and turkey vegetable soup.
This year my ultimate goal is to get as much paid on that darn CC debt as I can. I`m hoping that now that I have extra income the bank will give me a line of credit which will be a much lower interest rate.

Happy New Year, everyone! Love the name of the thread! :)

Wowsers, I'm SO jealous of the chickens above; never had peameal bacon, though... oh, now that I've googled it, it's what we call back bacon here, but the edges aren't rolled in cornmeal! Others call it Canadian bacon.

I think I've only bought back bacon once - way too pricey here.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrsSunshine

good morning and a VERY Happy New year to everyone.
doing the same thing here, laundry and cleaning up corners.
I really hope I can get our monthly grocery budget under $500 a month here. OMG..
as well as implementing meal planning. I know dh does not eat dinners during the week, so its going to be just the kids and I. easy and cheap meals will work. as for weekends. there is SO much in the freezer to use up.
the only thing i really purchase fresh is milk, eggs, bread. anyone know where I can invest in a cow. LOL. my son goes through at least a 4L bag every day to two days.. i think i may implement a rule for him, if he wants a drink its a $.50.. bowl of cereal is $1. maybe this will prevent him from helping himself to 2-3 LARGE bowls of cereal anytime he wants it.
once dh and I get spare a weekend and get some rhubarb/strawberry jam made.. i'll have 3/4 of my freezer back.
maybe then stock up on bread too.
anyway. have a good day all.

---

Mrs. S I can certainly relate, however, it's my dh who is a milk lover and thank goodness he uses coffee whitener instead of milk otherwise we would go through more than 2x 4L a week :shock:. It seems that we are always buying milk and too be honest I only use milk in my coffee as I don't like milk not even choc. milk :shrug:.

I think your budget seems feasible especially if you use up what you have in the freezer and in your pantries.

Do you use certo in your jam or is it old school with the natural tannins from the berries & rhubard that you cook longer but gels itself?

I did the same thing as you, froze a bunch of tomatoes one year hoping to use them as needing and it was amazing how much space they took up, hadn`t realized until I went digging for meat and all I had was tomatoes :lolsign:.

Happy New Year to you and your family.

PS how is your dad doing these days?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Giseledta

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.

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Happy New Year Giseledta to you and you family and may all your hopes & plans work out & come true.

Frugal is as fun as you want it to be, with positive intentions, planning & hard work it certainly makes life a little easier & more manageable at times.

I need to pay off my LOC this year so that I can tackle my superannuation repayment so that is our biggest financial goal this year, so fingers & toes crossed 2014 is much better than 2013.

http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/73...c8e2778ec0.jpg

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrsSunshine

good morning and a VERY Happy New year to everyone.
doing the same thing here, laundry and cleaning up corners.
I really hope I can get our monthly grocery budget under $500 a month here. OMG..
as well as implementing meal planning. I know dh does not eat dinners during the week, so its going to be just the kids and I. easy and cheap meals will work. as for weekends. there is SO much in the freezer to use up.
the only thing i really purchase fresh is milk, eggs, bread. anyone know where I can invest in a cow. LOL. my son goes through at least a 4L bag every day to two days.. i think i may implement a rule for him, if he wants a drink its a $.50.. bowl of cereal is $1. maybe this will prevent him from helping himself to 2-3 LARGE bowls of cereal anytime he wants it.
once dh and I get spare a weekend and get some rhubarb/strawberry jam made.. i'll have 3/4 of my freezer back.
maybe then stock up on bread too.
anyway. have a good day all.

---

I'm hoping to get our budget back under $450 every 2 weeks! I don't think its realistic though. As for milk, I blantantly refuse to purchase more than 5 jugs (here they aren't in bags, its 4L jugs) of milk a week. Many times come friday they are out. Too bad, no milk for your cereal then. And that doesn't include the toddler's milk because he still drinks homo milk. It drives my husband crazy, but I don't think 5 jugs for 5 people (really 4 cause I don't drink milk but I do cook with it) is unreasonable. Plus, where the heck would I put more milk??

January is the month where I get 3 paychecks. Hoping to put like 1/2 of the extra paycheck away as a start towards our emergency fund. It bothers me a lot that we don't have one. We are one disaster (or broken car!) away from financial meltdown. I don't like living that way.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Crochetlady

Wow Nancy! That is a lot of meat for the freezer. I cooked a turkey yesterday so will make some freezer meals and turkey vegetable soup.
This year my ultimate goal is to get as much paid on that darn CC debt as I can. I`m hoping that now that I have extra income the bank will give me a line of credit which will be a much lower interest rate.

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Yes and I was super happy as I paid 1/4 of what it should have costed. I joked with dh that maybe I should have gone back in again as perhaps they would have run out of the chickens and replaced with something else :lolsign:.

Please share what types of turkey meals you will be making to freeze as I really need some ideas as I will be cooking a turkey on Saturday and PLAN on making soup x 2 types (turkey rice & turkey veggie and chickpeas or mixed beans, whatever I have on stock) on Sunday this way dh won`t get tired eating the same soup over and over :cheer2: and I got 2 sets of 24 pieces each of the purex containers with lids....so easy to see!!!

I`ve never make turkey pot pie anyone have any suggestions or even recipe for the crust?

Also anyone have recipe for turkey cream sauce like terrazini

Happy New Year! Cooking a bacon and eggs breakfast (well it's 1pm so I guess a late lunch!) Didn't crawl out of bed till after noon today! Not planning much today. Boys watching hockey game this afternoon. May take a stroll in Shoppers lol. Big thanks to my neighbour that did my driveway!!!

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by Crochetlady

Wow Nancy! That is a lot of meat for the freezer. I cooked a turkey yesterday so will make some freezer meals and turkey vegetable soup.
This year my ultimate goal is to get as much paid on that darn CC debt as I can. I`m hoping that now that I have extra income the bank will give me a line of credit which will be a much lower interest rate.

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Great goal Crochetlady, debt is never fun but the extra you have coming in will come in handy towards that repayment, best of luck & happy new year to you and your family, all the best in 2014

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jasperandchar

Yes and I was super happy as I paid 1/4 of what it should have costed. I joked with dh that maybe I should have gone back in again as perhaps they would have run out of the chickens and replaced with something else :lolsign:.

Please share what types of turkey meals you will be making to freeze as I really need some ideas as I will be cooking a turkey on Saturday and PLAN on making soup x 2 types (turkey rice & turkey veggie and chickpeas or mixed beans, whatever I have on stock) on Sunday this way dh won`t get tired eating the same soup over and over :cheer2: and I got 2 sets of 24 pieces each of the purex containers with lids....so easy to see!!!

I`ve never make turkey pot pie anyone have any suggestions or even recipe for the crust?

Also anyone have recipe for turkey cream sauce like terrazini

---

I will be watching the recipes for turkey stuff too. Have 3 in the freezer (54 cents a lbs after Thanksgiving) Will use one in the next few weeks for sure (want some freezer room) have 3 delissio pizzas in the snow outside! $1.88 after pm and coupons I couldn't resist even with all the free pizza from RCSS we still have.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Natalka

Happy New Year, everyone! Love the name of the thread! :)

Wowsers, I'm SO jealous of the chickens above; never had peameal bacon, though... oh, now that I've googled it, it's what we call back bacon here, but the edges aren't rolled in cornmeal! Others call it Canadian bacon.

I think I've only bought back bacon once - way too pricey here.

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Happy New Year to you as well.

The pea meal bacon that I got looks almost like this, normally it's cooked thinly sliced and it so yummy but ya very expensive
http://forum.smartcanucks.ca/image/j...gqwXKeNE3s/9k= never would have purchased it otherwise but since the price was right it was too good to pass up.

Happy New Year Nancy

Our worlds are still swaying which is really sucking, stairs seem really bad which is horrible since I am doing laundry which means two flights. I am doing well but mom still seems to have her cold. Thanks for asking. We ventured out yesterday because we needed milk that was kind fun. Hoping to be better by the weekend to do a big shop.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by jasperandchar

Happy New Yea to you Ashely, what a ride 2013 was, hoping you & your mom a very wonderful 2014.

PS how are you feeling these days?

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Gotta love boys, my step mom is constantly trying to find ways to get the boys to stop eating everything in sight especially when some have special dietary needs and they eat dishes and meals meant for those people.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by MrsSunshine

good morning and a VERY Happy New year to everyone.
doing the same thing here, laundry and cleaning up corners.
I really hope I can get our monthly grocery budget under $500 a month here. OMG..
as well as implementing meal planning. I know dh does not eat dinners during the week, so its going to be just the kids and I. easy and cheap meals will work. as for weekends. there is SO much in the freezer to use up.
the only thing i really purchase fresh is milk, eggs, bread. anyone know where I can invest in a cow. LOL. my son goes through at least a 4L bag every day to two days.. i think i may implement a rule for him, if he wants a drink its a $.50.. bowl of cereal is $1. maybe this will prevent him from helping himself to 2-3 LARGE bowls of cereal anytime he wants it.
once dh and I get spare a weekend and get some rhubarb/strawberry jam made.. i'll have 3/4 of my freezer back.
maybe then stock up on bread too.
anyway. have a good day all.

---

Amazing meat deals Nancy.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by jasperandchar

Hi everyone,

Wishing each and everyone a prosperous & healthy New Year.

What a ride & journey 2013 was for most of us on the Frugal Chatter thead, with the ups & downs & unexpected expenses that arised but fortunately it was nice in my opinion to have the friends on here to bounce ideas, offer advice and kindness to put our minds to ease. AND The joyous births of the new babies like another SC member mentioned in Dec. thread.

May you achieve all the things you wish to accomplish or wish to learn in this 1st day of 2014.

___________

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 :shock:. 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

---

Mrs S-I don't know your son's age but check the number of dairy servings he should have for his age according to the Canada Food Guide and try to limit milk/dairy servings to this amount per day. He can always drink water if he is thirsty and if he is having a growth spurt there are likely less expensive, but still nutritious foods he can fill up on like bread, pasta etc. Buy a big, cheap bag of oatmeal and tell him to help himself. Maybe you can get some marked down bread or bake some( or he can) to cut bread costs too. Review the food guide with him and the costs and like you say charging him from his own earnings for excessive milk consumption might just get his attention! Good luck!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrsSunshine

good morning and a VERY Happy New year to everyone.
doing the same thing here, laundry and cleaning up corners.
I really hope I can get our monthly grocery budget under $500 a month here. OMG..
as well as implementing meal planning. I know dh does not eat dinners during the week, so its going to be just the kids and I. easy and cheap meals will work. as for weekends. there is SO much in the freezer to use up.
the only thing i really purchase fresh is milk, eggs, bread. anyone know where I can invest in a cow. LOL. my son goes through at least a 4L bag every day to two days.. i think i may implement a rule for him, if he wants a drink its a $.50.. bowl of cereal is $1. maybe this will prevent him from helping himself to 2-3 LARGE bowls of cereal anytime he wants it.
once dh and I get spare a weekend and get some rhubarb/strawberry jam made.. i'll have 3/4 of my freezer back.
maybe then stock up on bread too.
anyway. have a good day all.

---

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!

Nancy-it sounds like you need to keep going back to that No Frills. I often get lean ground beef there marked down to $1.00 per lb and if you can spot a good deal then your meat stock will be complete. Great shopping!

When our son was at home, he was a HUGE milk drinker, always was, right from when he was a kid.
Now he's on his own, he still is - and has milk here when he comes over.

I just let it be - he still drank a lot of water, and having milk was better than having pop!
He's also a huge cheese lover - and what's funny is now that he's feeding himself, he's buying what I'd call 'fancy' cheeses - the kind that I would only buy once in a while because they were expensive, but he loves havarti, smoked gouda, etc.

Mind you, now that I think about it it isn't that bad, because he'll make a grilled cheese sandwich with that cheese, in place of meat... so, not really awful!

I love milk and cheese too, but have to limit it because I'm lactose intolerant, and those darned Lactaid pills are pricey - so I have to spread out any meals with dairy.
And, if I accidentally have too much dairy for the pills to counteract, that's no fun.... (like the new poutine I tried to McDonald's - it was good, but too much cheese - I'll have to go back to having BK poutine when I get the urge!)

I wouldn't mind him drinking the milk so much if he left a little for his Dad to have his cereal before he goes to work. ya know. he thinks its a never ending supply.

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.

oh Granger thats horrible.. hope Karma kicks their butt.
for all that person knew.. someone could have fallen inside their home and be hurt or worse as they went to close door...instead they thought.. heh free stuff..

happy new year all-just cleaned my bathroom floor on my knees-wow sometimes I can still do that -even thou I have arthritis in my knees-just watched "guilt trip" on neflix -gee I love this Netflix-am dong laundry while its cheaper today-ohh and ordered some coupons from websaver and save.ca to built up my stock

That is horrible.

It sucks because you want to trust people but one bad person can ruin it for everyone and it is shocking what people will take.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Granger

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.

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Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrsSunshine

I wouldn't mind him drinking the milk so much if he left a little for his Dad to have his cereal before he goes to work. ya know. he thinks its a never ending supply.

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Mine too!! Apparently dairy products just magically appear in the fridge. I can spend $75+ per week on dairy between milk, cream, cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream, ect....

Quote:

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Originally Posted by MrsSunshine

I wouldn't mind him drinking the milk so much if he left a little for his Dad to have his cereal before he goes to work. ya know. he thinks its a never ending supply.

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kids...