March: Spring into Savings (frugal chatter)

[MrsSunshine]

so it appears i won't be on much this week. dh has put a challenge towards me. if my kids are home i can't be on. to prove we don't 'live' for the internet.. so my challenge is to see what i can get the kids out of the house doing.. so i can go on.. but thing is if they are out. chances are i'll be with them.
i have a feeling its going to be a long week.

[jasperandchar]

Well, it is official now as our house is sold and our real estate agent will be be putting the sold sign up today. We have to be out on May 15th...hope we find a house we like before then. It will be nice to downsize to a smaller house. Of course we will have to get rid of some stuff but that means less work for both DH and I.

I am not really looking forward to packing but then again who is. No more stocking for me for until we move so my grocery bill will go down which will be a bonus considering all the costs which are associated with moving.

Less time for me on the computer I guess. Off now to do up my fresh veggies and stuff. Hope everyone has a great day and March break for those with kids in school.

congrats mac

[lilo0003]

Pretty impressive that your son made rep in his second year....and with a cast, wow good for him! My son was just really getting the hang of it by the end of the season last year. He has asthma so we put him in it to stay conditioned. He did baseball for 2 years before that and when hockey season started he had a full blown asthma attack at tryouts. Clearly baseball did nothing to help keep him in shape Lots of sitting on the bench followed by getting hit by the ball a few times.....once so hard in the head that the stitching of the ball was indented into his forehead. He didn't cry though, so my husband was proud...lol!!! For the amount of money we pay for him to play hockey(local not rep) we decided that lacrosse would be more beneficial. And they wear helmets so no fear of getting a ball to the head

We are lucky in that all his friends play & we live in Oakville. The coach of the Buffalo bandits runs a program here to so he plays the entire year and has a skills and drills session almost weekly. The Toronto Rock facility is 2 minutes from my house so it makes his love of the sport pretty easy for us since the program is run there.
I have had a very expensive day as we are off today to go shop for the reno. So I bought the tile and the tub and the flooring for the bedroom and hall.
I feel some of the pain of those of you about to pack for a move. We have been in this house for 19yrs so have a lot of stuff to deal with to do the reno. It does feel great to purge.

[jasperandchar]

so it appears i won't be on much this week. dh has put a challenge towards me. if my kids are home i can't be on. to prove we don't 'live' for the internet.. so my challenge is to see what i can get the kids out of the house doing.. so i can go on.. but thing is if they are out. chances are i'll be with them.
i have a feeling its going to be a long week.

good luck with your challenge Mrs. S, how old are the boys?

[jasperandchar]

Thank you!

yes welcome to the thread!

[jasperandchar]

Thanks ladies, I will make the call tomorrow!
As for me- I received my tax return so along with paying some small debts and my mastercard, we have booked and paid our Florida/Myrtle beach trip in cash! Hurray to no debt for fun.
The girls and I are headed across the river for a little shopping and hotel getaway for March break. I'm trying to find a good US coupon site!

How about you all? Plans?
I am headed to the dealership tomorrow to transfer the ownership of my car- making the last payment tomorrow!

congrats on the refund sound like you are making wise choices some debt repayment and some fun as life should not be about all work and no play

[jasperandchar]

Hi everyone,

You gals have been super chatty since I last posted on Thursday .

Not liking the expenses that this month is bringing, had to call a heating company as our propane hot water tank was not heating the water it's fixed now $195.47 the sensor was apparently dirty . Then a whole day of electrician today for Jaden's new bedroom and wiring to future powder room bill to come and not excited to see what it will be.

1 cottage property tax bill, 1 vacant land cottage property tax bill, dh's property tax bill for his moose hunting camp which is leased that need to be paid by the end of the month.

The good news is that our new doctor filled out Jaden's DTC (disability tax credit) paperwork properly so that should give me some sort of refund for last year 2012's tax year and hopefully I won't owe as much as I should for 2013's taxes if the paperwork gets approved before we do our taxes, I've decided that I will mail the forms tomorrow and wait 1 month before I drop our taxes off by that time hopefully his DTC will be rec'd and approved (a girl can dream).

Logan has removed his bandage which covered the glue applied at emergency room but the poor guy still has a fat lip, can't eat without everything being cut up super small and can't talk properly. And not to mention the big gash over his lip - poor guy

[Crochetlady]

so it appears i won't be on much this week. dh has put a challenge towards me. if my kids are home i can't be on. to prove we don't 'live' for the internet.. so my challenge is to see what i can get the kids out of the house doing.. so i can go on.. but thing is if they are out. chances are i'll be with them.
i have a feeling its going to be a long week.

Good luck with the challenge. I was without my computer 5 days a couple weeks ago. Every day felt a week long.

I have had a very expensive day as we are off today to go shop for the reno. So I bought the tile and the tub and the flooring for the bedroom and hall.
I feel some of the pain of those of you about to pack for a move. We have been in this house for 19yrs so have a lot of stuff to deal with to do the reno. It does feel great to purge.

I`ve lived in this house 33 years. I keep looking around me and tell myself I need to downsize. It`s so overwhelming I just go back to crocheting.

Hi everyone,

You gals have been super chatty since I last posted on Thursday .

Not liking the expenses that this month is bringing, had to call a heating company as our propane hot water tank was not heating the water it's fixed now $195.47 the sensor was apparently dirty . Then a whole day of electrician today for Jaden's new bedroom and wiring to future powder room bill to come and not excited to see what it will be.

1 cottage property tax bill, 1 vacant land cottage property tax bill, dh's property tax bill for his moose hunting camp which is leased that need to be paid by the end of the month.

The good news is that our new doctor filled out Jaden's DTC (disability tax credit) paperwork properly so that should give me some sort of refund for last year 2012's tax year and hopefully I won't owe as much as I should for 2013's taxes if the paperwork gets approved before we do our taxes, I've decided that I will mail the forms tomorrow and wait 1 month before I drop our taxes off by that time hopefully his DTC will be rec'd and approved (a girl can dream).

Logan has removed his bandage which covered the glue applied at emergency room but the poor guy still has a fat lip, can't eat without everything being cut up super small and can't talk properly. And not to mention the big gash over his lip - poor guy

Ouch! That`s a lot of property taxes at once. That`s why we pay ours on monthly installments. Doesn`t hurt quite as much.

Hope you get the DTC without any problems.

That sounds very painful. I his tooth ok?

[lilo0003]

I must share my awesome deal 1L five alive in the tetra 3/50 cents. I bought 9 (short shelf life) but logan loves the stuff. Woo hoo

[MrsSunshine]

so far so good, got quite a bit done around the house. sneaking on for a few minutes.
were going tomorrow to apply for jobs. all of us. with the colleges/unis letting out in a month. hope it means a chance for us.

Nancy they are 19, 20.

[macw1960]

We are a big Lacrosse family...
And we are lucky to have some really great players in our family. (Minto & Mann Cup Champions Winners).

You are close to me as I know where Minto Township area is.

[macw1960]

Our agent found what may be the perfect house for us, not even on the market yet and we have first dibs. So far we love all the pics but they can be deceiving I suppose. Going to look at it tomorrow morning. Added bonus if we decide to take it is almost 2 months of moving time because the house is vacant.

[MrsSunshine]

good luck mac. hope it works out for you.

[coupon girl]

-good luck mac
-well lots of people are moving on here to other homes or downsizing -good luck all
-we have been in our house 16 years-it will be almost paid off in few years-it is a 2 storey with stairs down the basement and up stairs we haven't decided to move yet I keep going thru stuff thou have a big bag going

[bobbiegirl2010]

I recently found this thread and thought I'd join in and say Hi! I have already met Crochetlady a few years ago at SDM. I tried to give you a coupon but you already had one lol. I live in Minto Township so I must live close to a few other ladies too.

Congrats to everyone moving! It took us over a year to sell our old house and find our current home 3 years ago.

I am a mom of 2 girls (3 and 7) and also do home daycare. My latest frugal project is selling baby stuff on consignment as well as some maternity clothing. We're decluttering and trying to save so that we can put a finished rec room in the bsmt. I am also trying to lower our grocery spending from $600 to $500 per month. I've always sales shopped, price-matched, couponed and built a stockpile. My problem is that I over buy and buy more than we need. So my new strategy (which has been working so far) is to menu plan based on what we have and then create a grocery list of what we need before I look at the flyers. I used to always buy whatever sales/deals I saw in the flyer that I liked when it may not even be something we need and then forget to buy items I actually need and then have to make a second trip to a store later in the week. So this new method has saved me both time and money I have also been baking muffins, cookies and all of our meals from scratch. No more convenience foods like frozen pizza or lasagna and we have not gone out to eat or had take out since Christmas which is a big savings for us