Just chilling in January (2015 frugal chatter)

[bobbiegirl2010]

My price points for produce: I will only buy grapes, strawberries, blueberries if they are under $2/lb. Melons under $2 but mostly buy off the reduced rack for 99 cents. Apples and oranges under $1/lb. Bananas are always 57 cents/lb and I usually buy 2 bunches per week for breakfasts.

For veggies: I stick to $1 or less each (cucumbers, broccoli etc...) Some things I will go a little higher (cauliflower, celery etc...) as they usually don't go under $1. I stopped buying baby carrots and only buy the 10lb bags of carrots now for $3 a bag or less.

This time of year we mostly eat frozen or canned fruits (smoothies, applesauce etc...) and frozen veggies with meals and stick to raw carrots, apples and oranges and dried fruits (raisins, craisins etc...) for snacks. We eat a bigger variety in the summer when produce is cheaper.

[jasperandchar]

I buy mostly frozen in the winter months and even that out with the pink stickered fruit and veggies at Independent. I don't love frozen in a stir fry but I love using the coleslaw mix in stir fries and add some snow peas or mushrooms and that makes a really frugal stirfry, add some brown rice noodles and some crushed peanuts and is it awesome! We try to eat between 8-10 servings a day of fruit and veggies so it gets pricey if you aren't careful.
As far as the bakery job and and a$$ the size of a tractor, I have to be very careful but I let myself have something once a week, usually a black forest turnover, I bring it home and split with my DH!!!

you have great will power I would be eating atleast 1 thing a day I worked in a donut shop when I was a teenager and we got free donuts, well let's just say I over did and can only have a donut every once in a blue moon

[jasperandchar]

Good Morning Everyone Hope everyone is having a good day. Just going to make a couple of batches of Scones and will drop off one at Moms later this afternoon. Have some clothes to purge and ended up getting side-tracked this morning sorting cards and envelopes, wrapping paper/tissue,tags,etc. After 1 hr I put them in a big box and that will be for a day I don't have other things to purge. Soooo easy to get side-tracked. I want to clear out the big stuff first. Well, back I go to see how much I can get done today

thumbs up

[bobbiegirl2010]

Scored 2 pkgs of portobello mushrooms and 3 pkgs of cremini mushrooms on the reduced rack last week for 99 cents each. I used one pkg of mushrooms on Thursday/Friday last week (1/2 in fajitas and 1/2 in spagetti sauce). I chopped the other 2 pkgs of creminis up and froze them on parchment paper (aka cereal box liners) on cookie sheets and then once frozen transferred them to freezer bags to use later (I do this with reduced rack peppers too). The portobello mushrooms I grilled last night brushed with balsamic vingarette - yum. Also made a caesar salad with homemade dressing and croutons (found the recipes on a website called goodcheapeats ) The salad dressing was a bit to lemony but otherwise good. Will try making again but with 1/2 the lemon juice. Croutons are soooo easy to make I will never buy the packaged ones ever again lol.

[jasperandchar]

lunch for dh & I was soup & chili (leftovers) but planned this way and really easy just reheat when we're hungry

Dinner tonight is boneless pork chops, rice & frozen peas, need to get moving with the meal plan for the rest of the week.

Anyone else Hoping that SDM in Ontario has 20x points when you spend $50.00 like a sneak peak seen on SC but for Quebec,??? I have my fingers crossed as I need some things but we'll see if I can make $50.00 on REASONABLY priced items, I find SDM is normally quite pricey otherwise .

Vice principal called so dh is walking out to the bus and we'll have chat with Jaden this evening so hoping that it's no big deal but we'll see and need to call vice principal back tomorrow....grr..

I will be stripping the paint off the baseboards again tomorrow for Jaden's room last time was trim but now we need baseboards, we had some new baseboards made by someone who does millwork but they are very expensive so we are trying to use up what can be salvaged and go from there. Our house is 50's and all original baseboards/trims and dh wanted to keep the original stuff but we are quickly running out of the new baseboards were made by the millworker.....baby steps....

Posted some items last night on local fb page, need to get back to a few people but our morning was spent downstairs getting organized for tomorrow and dh had a few squirrel moments (side tracked) so we didn't get as much done before he called it quits to rest his back BUT that's okay.

Wishing everyone a wonderful day & evening.

[bobbiegirl2010]

I worked on organizing my grocery receipts for income tax time and I spent $400 less on daycare groceries then I did last year This is mainly because I cut out pre-made foods and made more from scratch (no more granola bars, yogurt tubes, frozen waffles, juice boxes etc...). Kids eat healthier and I save money so win - win

[Angela273]

I am still very sick with morning sickness, throw up 1-2 times per day, upset stomach most of the time. Yesterday, after my nap, I got to work. I did a load of laundry, washed dishes, baked 1 dozen banana chocolate chip muffins, 2 dozen apple sauce muffins, packed away the Christmas tree, and tidied the living room. Dh gave LO a bath, helped pack Christmas stuff & took it out to the shed. After LO was in bed my stomach was feeling pretty good, so we finally cooked supper. Steak, mushrooms, real M&C with a glass of milk. There was enough leftover for today's lunch.

[lizzie bargain]

Angela-I hope you will stop throwing up soon! BG-way to go on cutting down on your groceries and making your own stuff for the daycare kids. And TG your stir fry sounds good-I think we should be eating more veggies too-especially the 15 year old. Speaking of DD I just drove her and a couple of friends to their last exam of this semseter-usually she takes the bus to school. That ought to be good for a couple of mother brownie pts-lol. I gave a lift to a couple of her friends as well and I noticed she listened with rapt attention as one of the guys reviewed his notes out loud for the benfit of the group. Now if I had done that there would have been eye rolling etc -lol! Now they have two weeks off!!

Sure was not like that when I went to high school-anyway since she liked her film class so much we asked the guy next door if DD could go to work with him tomorrow as he reports and produces at the local news station-at least it will start to give her some ideas of what she would or would not like to do career wise. I also had her book an apt next week with the career counsellor to start to look at her future interests, courses needed etc. Time for some more driving practice too with her learners permit and the mild weather. Oh yes and two dental apts to get her new retainer. In other words a little shopping or hanging out with friends is fine but 2 full weeks right after Xmas break is a bit more than necessary IMHO. She is a great kid, but keep them busy and out of trouble is my mantra!

[thriftygranny]

Lizzie, I was at a wedding recently and sat with a career councilor from SAIT, they have a really great Career fair every October for the high schoolers, Jayden and I will be going for sure, he is so torn on his career choices. she said they have the run of the place to check out labs etc and lots of guidance and info.

[MrsSunshine]

well, dh finally went through our xmas boxes. 8 down to 4. thats pretty good.
the rest i've posted on fb.
the other cake stuff id already posted has now been taking down, he wants to go through it all. good think he said something.. i had a buyer for it all.
really hoping i can still sell most of it. he wants to keep a 'base' line of stuff jic we want to make and decorate a cake.
makes sense i guess.

[jasperandchar]

great job on the savings bobbiegirl and so much healthier

[jasperandchar]

Lizzie great that your dd can go with the neighbour certainly food for thought and a day out of the house (lol), like you said keep them busy and out of trouble. PS how's your mom doing?

[lizzie bargain]

TG-thnks for the note about SAIT-sounds good. I know DD's cousin went there so it would be good for her to check out next fall in Grade 11 for sure.

[jasperandchar]

Mrs. S. I love your new signature perhaps I'm late for the party but just noticed it

Angeal I hope your tummy settles soon

[Angela273]

Mrs. S. I love your new signature perhaps I'm late for the party but just noticed it

Angeal I hope your tummy settles soon

I have already looked at my notes from my pregnancy with LO and I threw up daily until 16wks. At that point I went down to throwing up 2-3 times per week. I am only 9wks pregnant now, so since this one is currently being worse than last time...I'm not holding my breath.

I picked up more bookings today and only have Thursday afternoon available for this week, already booking a little into next week. At 12.8 days currently (booked or already worked) this month. I am happy with that and there is still time left to get more work in this month. I already hit the 600hr mark towards EI since September, so now I am just trying to get better maternity leave and a better pay cheque.