Just chilling in January (2015 frugal chatter)

[bobbiegirl2010]

Have to go out to No Frills and SDM to do the rest of my grocery shopping tomorrow before the big storm comes. Planning on leaving at 7:30am. Leaving the girls and DH at home so I can get in and out and back home quick (and stay in budget lol).

[lizzie bargain]

Speaking of snow I just went out and shovelled. DH had already done it once-certainly chilly and more than was forecast. DH and I started on New Years Eve watching the whole series of Call the Midwife and we are both enjoying it-I was born in England at that time and we were fairly poor so I can relate! No spoilers please if you are up to date on the series-I guess a new one starts at the end of March so we have some catching up to do!

[cdngal75]

Happy New Year All - may it be frugal and less financially stressful & trying than last year for us all!!!!

From your lips to God's ears.

[Natalka]

lizzie - I've watched Call the Midwife since the beginning - it's most awesome. Just watched the Christmas special. You'll get caught up quickly, they are easy to watch and follow.
Can't wait for the new season!

Well, husband made an awesome supper and I'm just enjoying being full and not tuckered out from cooking!

[MrsSunshine]

were getting a storm overnight til tomorrow afternoon.
first snow, then freezing rain then rain.
we'll see what happens.
only plan on baking tomorrow.
i've also planned a family meeting for noon. 22 items on the agenda.
after reading so many posts on here about how your families work i've decided its time for our family most importantly of our sons to start growin up.
wish i had a calendar for the wall to help out with what im expecting. maybe make something on paper and tape to the fridge.
a few good things happening so far. my sister is being reduced on her dialysis, is it possible for a kidney to heal itself ?
and my son has met a lovely lady in our city. they are planning a date for next week. this is HUGE for him.
praying it goes well. worse case scenario im hoping, he ends up with a good friend to hang out with.

ill update tomorrow on how my meeting goes.

[Andit]

Good evening, everyone.

I'm baaaack!!!!!

Had an eventful time away (would it ever be uneventful, after all it is me we're talking about ). The eye surgery went as well as could be expected. The IV even went in without issue. Then came the follow-up appt the next morning. My Mom came with me, & since there was no one waiting (they either were early & got served asap or were running late), the assistant insisted she come into the exam room with me.
Which made it oh so comical when the specialist on call for the holidays (she wanted to put a face to a name, just in case I happened upon her doorstep) checked me & things were a bit wonky (pressure was double what it should be - glaucoma, here I come ). My specialist (the surgeon) soon came in, trailed by the doctor shadowing her in training to be a specialist. There we were, 5 adults in a room about the size of the average area rug. Then I had a mini operation that took all of 30 seconds (drops for freezing, then loosening of stitch and draining of liquids, fun times ). My poor Mom kept asking whether she should be there, whether she was in the way ("Nah, there's lots of room, oh & do ya wanna watch?" ). All in all, good times. Especially when the procedure worked and brought the pressure down.

Xmas Eve my bff came over for dinner (cabbage rolls cause D's allergic to fish, so no traditional seafood for us) and to open some gifts (I went a bit overboard on gifts cause D's been an absolute sweetheart in driving me & the brats back & forth to my Mom & also taking her grocery shopping). We then went to D's on Xmas Day for turkey with some family members.

All went well until New Year's Day (even the follow up eye appt). My Mom & I went over to D's for a big NY dinner (about 20ish folks, tho some were sidetracked by bugs, more anon). The ones who made it had a lovely time with pre-dinner cheese & wine (or martinis ). Fun times, until we realized how cold it seemed to be getting. Furnace or thermostat is shot. Great timing. 3 boys tried their hands at fixing it, to no avail. Meanwhile, as everyone was getting chilled, my Mom was complaining of being warm. Then hot. Then came the dizzy spell. Needless to say, while everyone else was enjoying the yummy food, she was asleep in D's bed. And no, it wasn't the martini as some joked, it was the flu. It hit hard and fast. Got her home, only to find that Lily dog seemed off. Spent all of last night either taking Lily dog out cause of tummy troubles or checking on my Mom. Since I have no immune system, I high-tailed it out of there as soon as my Mom could make tea for herself. Brats & I got home this aft & a looong nap later, I finally got around to getting myself organized. Someone still has tummy troubles, so I suspect it will be a long night. Again.

On the plus side, for the first time in a long while, I actually feel healthy.

Will catch up when I have a chance.

Hope everyone enjoys their evening.

Darn. My poor pup is really upset cause she couldn't make it to the tiled bathroom and threw up on the carpet. Guess I know what I'll be doing tonight instead of sleeping. )

[Natalka]

Andi, so very glad things went well for you!
Hope your mom and pup get better quickly.

Well, we're back into the really cold temps, so that's a bummer...

[lizzie bargain]

On my Andit-wild times for you. Hope you do not catch your Mum's bug. Natalka-you and I are sure up early!! Cold here too. I am planning to head an hr north today and visit with a friend( the Mum of the 2 year old triplet boys) and then my sister( who just moved back from Germany) but need to check the road report first as I know they were bad yesterday). I think DD plans to come and likely DH will hang out at home.

[jasperandchar]

Natalka a well deserved night off from cooking with all you do

[jasperandchar]

were getting a storm overnight til tomorrow afternoon.
first snow, then freezing rain then rain.
we'll see what happens.
only plan on baking tomorrow.
i've also planned a family meeting for noon. 22 items on the agenda.
after reading so many posts on here about how your families work i've decided its time for our family most importantly of our sons to start growin up.
wish i had a calendar for the wall to help out with what im expecting. maybe make something on paper and tape to the fridge.
a few good things happening so far. my sister is being reduced on her dialysis, is it possible for a kidney to heal itself ?
and my son has met a lovely lady in our city. they are planning a date for next week. this is HUGE for him.
praying it goes well. worse case scenario im hoping, he ends up with a good friend to hang out with.

ill update tomorrow on how my meeting goes.

Mrs. S. great new with your sister and hopefully your son makes a new friend (wink).

Good luck with your meeting

My guys are 11 and 13 and here is what they do everyday

sweep and wash the kitchen floor
wash bathroom floors on Mon, Wens and Saturdays
vacuum the living room
bring dirty laundry to washing machine
bring clean clothes up to my room
feed the dog and give water to dogs
put bird seed in bird feeder
feed the deer corn
bring out garbage
bring out recycle
bring out compost
bring in firewood in the winter
dust the living room on Saturday
clean their whole rooms on Saturday from windows, dusting, put things away nothing on flat surfaces

It makes a huge difference

[jasperandchar]

Andit hope your mom & dog feel better soon. SO glad that they were able to reduced the pressure in your eye, take care

[jasperandchar]

Chester decided he want out at 6am....grr....but I'm enjoying my coffee and time alone. Our plans today include SDM for many things pretty excited as normally I cannot take part in the 20x event as the sales are poop but not this time (thumbs up). Then off to find Logan some new winter boots as he has been wearing his current ones for 2 years now (slowly growing feet lol) and well they finally gave out. Planning on doing SDM while the guys are selecting boots. Then off to get Jaden a haircut as he doesn't want a buzz cut and I'm afraid we'll screw his hair up with scissors. We'll cut Logan's hair with the clippers later today or tomorrow but definitely before school starts. Running into WM for 2 things I can only pm there without the hassle of limits (lol), our Freshco only allow pming on a quantity of 4 hoping WM has the lunchmates for Logan's lunches as I think he would welcome a few of these as lunch treats. Dh and I are late in doing are budget for the month so that will be done on Monday

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning All,
Thank you for all of the support, sorry I did not respond sooner but I decided to take the bull by the horns so the say and get cleaning. I am hoping to do a massive blog update sometime this weekend with a ton of before photos, after shots will get done during the week once I am back to work. Right now the house of kind of deceiving, so much has been done but at the same time it is looking horrible. Right now there are a lot of piles all over which are sorted and just need to be put away (that is this weekends tasks). So hopefully by the end of today (if not today, than tomorrow for sure) everything in a pile will be put away and I will finally have a living room floor again. This is top priority as this is my work out space which I need back, I want to lose at least 10 pounds before we leave for Hawaii mid February.

As well had a chat with my Mom, one that did not result in a fight ( ). I told her that I need help, I cannot keep paying all the bills especially since I do not know what my pay will be this month, one down side to travelling to other locations is it makes it hard to put in over time when you do have no keys to go in early. So I am not sure what my hours will look like which could result in me not having overtime every week which is what is making us balance. As well I need help around the house, I have no issue doing a lot of the things I do but especially with the mass clean up I need help of I am just going to box everything up and throw it in the basement which will not be good as the room is already over flowing and well yeah not sure everything is coming out of that room not broken. I am sure my smart comments did not help, there were a lot but they seem to get through to her and make her see just how frustrated and upset I am.

I think what sucks the most is until we moved to this house me and my Mom had an amazing relationship we were more like best friends than Mom and Daughter and us living together worked. But sine we moved there just seems to more and more resentment, probably more so on my part. It has been a serious struggle for me as it really is affecting me, more and more I feel like me being me is not enough because I cannot come through and fix everything like I used too. So hopefully over the next month things will change as I have laid out some rules so to say including that I cannot do this alone especially since we have no idea how often I will actually be home. My schedule for the next two months have not been released yet, so in reality who knows there has even been talk of me going into each location more than once. Out of 5 locations I can only commute to 2, the one I work in daily which I will be training staff in and another locations I have worked in on a few occasions part time usually rotating out. Other than that, the other 3 location will have me living in a hotel and not being home.

Well, I must got and get ready have to do a little running around this morning, gotta hit the post office and Mom had a couple places she needed to go and than back home to keep working. Today;s tasks are as follows:
Do laundry
Finish Book Shelves
Make a Meal Plan
Do more work on Dinning Room
If I have time: Sort Stockpile Room to make more room

Have a great day everyone.

[lizzie bargain]

SA- so glad to hear you had a chat with your Mum! Surely she realizes that if she can't/won't do as much of her share as is possible financially and around the house that this living relationship cannot continue ad infinitum. As you said it is seriously affecting your previously good relationship. When you moved in together I assume it was for your mutual benefit and now she seems to be benfiting the most while you work full time and stress. Hopefully in 2015 she will buck up and do her share or you can decide to move on. Perhaps you being away quite a bit in the next couple of months is a good thing as she will need to cook and clean for herself. Sincerely hoping you are able to resolve your issues and 2015 is a good year for you!

[avoncallingu]

Morning, folks! When I heard the weather report for this morning for Chatham to London, I asked DH to come with me to London and rent a room so that when I got kicked out of the sleep study clinic I could go there until the weather cleared up. It meant taking the dogs to the sitter' s a day early.

It turned out that the weather was slower coming in (freezing rain) and I wound up driving home as DH still has dizziness. (He fell over on the bed as he tried to get up.)

So the whole hotel thing was a waste of money, but I am glad we did it, as, sure as shootin', if I had gone by myself, I would have hit the bad weather!

I finished the "purging" of my coupon binder on the trip down to London. Such a sorry sight!

It's like an "empty nest" and I am sad!

Now to get to work replacing them. I would join a train, but I have nothing to add!, Boo Hoo!

I did get some fantastic deals on next year'stocking staffers at Sears yesterday, though.

I'll tell you later. I am typing upside down in bed and my hands and shoulders are getting tired.

Happy weekend, folks!