Just chilling in January (2015 frugal chatter)

Thank you for the birthday wishes, everyone!:flowers: It was marvellous being out of the house for the day. Let's say I got plenty of fresh air as a result of walking! Have to work up the nerve to try one of the Nars lip pencils (freebie), considering I'm a lip balm person.

So the free credit report confirmed what I thought-there's one entry that is probably making banks think I have income to support a card. Will fix that. Hope to nip the credit card offers-not my regular bank but the other one checked my report almost quarterly (dates shown) last year. Had I bothered to do this check oh about six years ago, that would have been a good thing. Live and learn.
@Natalka and @thriftygranny -reading about tumbles by people you know had me thinking of pain relievers and anything to help stave off aches for the first two or three weeks (when the pain is worst if there's a bad twist or hard surface ontact). Concussion concerns as well if heads made contact with the floor/ground. I've noticed that if I don't warm up muscles before some lifting or carrying a heavy load, a muscle group will protest for a few days.
@Andit -that's the water plant that often is part of the Doors Open Toronto tour and has the interesting architecture! One day, I will visit the building! My first thought coincided with sweet sparrow's that the building was on the CNE grounds, but the former Automotive building that is now Allstream conference centre has gray masonry, not yellow. The ice on the railings do suggest proximity to Lake Ontario and those lovely winds that shape the ice!

@SassyAshley -you had some excitement on your travels this week. Cousin totally took advantage of the situation with you holding the baby! I did not realize he worked in the family business as when you mentioned the Christmas party, I thought he and his wife were guests of your Dad's.
Something that keeps coming to mind when you mention how when you get to sleep in, you don't feel like doing anything. How's the air circulation at home (I know you wrote how hard it is to heat the house)? Is there a carbon monoxide detector in the laundry room? For some reason, I keep thinking the air inside the house might need open windows or could there be a furnace issue or something else is maybe offgassing and contributing to headaches (like plastics esp. if near heat source or fumes from cleaning supplies or other products). Also the dryer lint trap and the vent pipe are clear of any lint?
@MrsSunshine and @Crochetlady -with the weather being what it is, crochet seems like an ideal way to pass the hours. I have not heard of steel or aluminum allergies, just of nickel. Though if there can be an allergy to cold (read that on the Weather Network last year), then anything could potentially be an allergen. Would a portable fabric case with slots/elastic loops for the hooks be a solution to disappearing hooks?

Good morning! Well, good is relative, we are back in the below 30 windchill arena.... gah!

The good part was getting a 7 a.m. phonecall (yes, we were already up!) from my husband's youngest sister and his mom from Yugoslavia (well, now, it's Serbia where they are). I had one whole sentence with Oksana - as far as her English would go, then just listened as my husband spoke with them - nice to hear them laughing together as they spoke in their own language. It's good to know all is good there - especially since last summmer his mom had a serious health scare. She just had her 90th birthday!

Today's a stay in and clean up day! Oh, yay!

Hope everyone has a good Caturday!

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Good morning, everyone. :)

Happy Caturday!!! Anyone else wanna hide from the cold???

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Just realized I didn't sign in yesterday. Sigh. That's what I get for having insomnia the night before an early appt. On the plus side, the eye specialist tells me I'm healing nicely, if a bit slowly, although I will need a teeny surgery in March to finish things up (laser zap, so no anaesthetic to make me wonky). By the time I made it home in the nice sunshine, I was blind as a bat, so just spent the day vegging on the couch with the brats. :P

Better go see what fun things I missed while I was busy playing/napping with the brats. ;)

Hope everyone has a wonderful day. :)

Mary Maxium is Awesome, i have a running wishlist from there that keeps getting larger and larger.

I swear just when we feel like we might be getting ahead things start breaking. The powersteering quit in my car on the way to work thursday after lunch. I had the car serviced while they were diagnosiing it as it was due....165 dollars later for the service alone...im told the car requires a new powersteering pump belt and pulley. its going to be around 700 dollars for that repair.

We prepaid for our tax program online (using the ufile link i saw on facebook) so rather than paying 18 each dollars after taxes it came to 13.60 each. last year i talked bf into letting me do his taxes as he was paying h and r block 100 for the service and then another 200 to get his cash the same day. I'm doing his and my taxes again this year. It looks like i "should" get arond 2300 back but i had a second job for a couple months im waiting on the T4 for and think it will drop about 400 dollars because they didnt deduct enough. i also owe the CRA about 600 for a goof up when i was self employed 2 years ago that was reassessed in november. the only exciting part of this is...for the first time since i graduated from college...i dont have to follow my rule to put all the money on my student loan...as its been paid off for 8 months!

We woke up this morning with frozen waterpipes. yay...might have to call the plumber but bf thinks its in the house not under neath so has a heater going in the little space where the pipes are and the water heater is with all the taps open. Atleast we had enough water in our large water glasses and the water ug in the fridge to make apot of coffee this morning.


our power bill went up yet again...which i really dont get as we are not using any more than normal....and we turn off all the lights when we arent in a room...the cars are on a 2 hr timer...and the period of time that the power bill covers is dec 17 to jan 17 and we were GONE for 12 days after the 19th of december.
Hope everyone else is having a better week than me and a great weekend.

I did pick up two "under the table" computer repair jobs so that will help with the extra costs that keep cropping up

Maybe the power rates went up?

Well we seemed to have had a good week around here for freebies! We are lucky.

-DH got an offer from his Timmies MC to open an account at CIBC and they would give him $400-sure there will be account fees for a few months but he still comes out way ahead. He does not intend to bank there long term.

-I applied for a Scotia cash back Visa through rate supermarket( no fee for one year) after which I will cancel and got a $100 Amazon gift card so had fun spending that online.

-my friend( whose husband is a dentist) gave us a bunch of free samples of Sensodyne toothpaste for DH

-another friend said she was going to Costco and offered to pick me up whatever I needed-then she said don't even pay me for them if your DH can walk our dog 3 times this weekend as we are away overnight. He thinks we got the better deal-box of raisins, 2 bags of organic steel cut oats, and a case of the snap pea crisps which DD likes to take in her lunch.

-my friend bought me a plane ticket to California in exchange for watching her babies while they take the bigger boys to the theme parks-given I love babies and travel I said yes( although I am only staying 7 days and they are staying 10 which is fine as they can have a bit of family time at the beach, in the pool etc.) I have to get back for DD's sweet 16th!

DD is back to school on Monday after exam break so life should be settling down to a "normal" routine.

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Originally Posted by Crochetlady

Hooks can get expensive, especially when they grow legs like mine do. lol My recliner keeps eating them. I was going through my bag of hooks the other day and found one of my moms. It had the price stamped on it .15
Here`s a trick mom taught me. She was allergic to the steel or aluminum...broke out in hives. She wrapped her hooks with masking tape. Years later when I couldn`t hold a fine hook, I did the same and still do. It also keeps the hook from sliding in your hand and cuts down on the fatigue. I just ordered a couple hooks from Herrschners on Monday. I hope they`re good. I paid $17 for one. Hope I don`t lose these. I used to buy them at Zellers and can`t find that kind anywhere. Walmart has the Red Heart but I hate them.

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Originally Posted by MrsSunshine

omg i was thinking the same thing about us the other day... people walking up to the door, exchange or product and money, gone in less than a minute... ya thats not strange..
no one said anything yet..

well we weren't snowed in, just got a nice fresh dusting of snow.. although the outskirts of town did have to close a few things due to blowin snow.

so question.. when does your license plate sticker actually expire, day OF your birthday. or the END of the month of your birthday?

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needles and hooks are expensive. I looked at michaels and walmart last year for them. I ended up ordering sets of 18 regular knitting needles and 18 circular knitting needleson Amazon for 15 dollars/set. I kept the ones of the sizes i didnt have...then sold the ones i didnt need for $3 or $5 each on facebook.

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Originally Posted by jasperandchar

Afternoon everyone,

I had a look at the grocery flyers and I must say that the Independent Grocers is the winner for us this week and I'm so exciting to start using my new PC mastercard :).

Today is budget day (lol) at our house, we'll run threw the numbers once dh gets up from his nap ;) and perhaps have a few adult beverages :shrug:.

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I ordered BF a pc mastercard linked to mine so we can collect points on his gas purchases as well without me having to remember to give him my card.

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Originally Posted by bobbiegirl2010

My #1 financial goal (new years resolution) for this year is:

Save enough money EVERY MONTH for 2015 taxes so I do not have to come up with big $$$$ next Jan/Feb. I've been self employed for 4 years now so you would think I would know better but I keep getting into this mess every year at tax time lol.

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I'm so glad im not self employed for that reason!

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Originally Posted by Frugalbigmama

Maybe the power rates went up?

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They might have - sadly Hay River is one of the communities in the north that have a pretty high cost of power already. The town is talking bout not renewing their contract with northland utilities for power service (which means we'd have to switch power companies) to the community as of November 2016.



Lizzie - awesome with all the freebies!





Hark i hear water. BF was right it wasnt underground. Yay for no plumbers. I worried from 4:30 until he woke up at 7 (i didnt wake him to tell him because i thought it was useless both of us stressing when it was something we'd have to call someone in for) thank god i was wrong!

Yeah! Happy it was an easy fix and no cost!

Well cleaned the kitchen. Took chicken out to defrost for dinner. Planning on a nice pasta dinner with the chicken. Want to get laundry going today ( lots!!!). House cleaning. Groceries. And a little fun wandering. Thrift store. Restore etc. will grab a coffee out with my honey and have a nice afternoon out looking around. Have 3 bedrooms to move around/ clean up. Will make sure to finish for sure tomorrow. Will concentrAte on laundry and getting all junk out today for it.

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Originally Posted by Frugalbigmama

Yeah! Happy it was an easy fix and no cost!

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We went to the Homehardware and picked up some insulation - when the tub tipped this summer the guys that worked on it didnt replace the insulation in the hole which turns out to be why everything froze up. Cost $10.


Checked our lotto ticket - we won a free play and $50 so i applied the win to my volteran we were picking up at the same time.

Laundry on the go. Cheap eggs bought from shoppers. Showered. Now off for an afternoon of browsing with my wonderful man. Have a great afternoon everyone.

saundyl, I never would have thought to check Amazon for crochet hooks. Couldn#t believe how inexpensive some of the sets are. I ordered a few...will only use a couple sizes but they were cheaper than buying some singles. Also found a piercing crochet hook. Didn#t even know such a thing existed. It will be great for crocheting the first row on micro fibre towels...they are very hard to do. Hands get really sore when I do that.

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Originally Posted by jasperandchar

I believe the plate is good for the whole month but don't quote me (lol)

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I was told by a worker at Service Ontario that it expires on your birthday. You likely would not get pulled over until it was the next month. BUT...if a police officer typed your licence plate in, it would come up as expired and you could be ticketed depending on his mood.

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Originally Posted by Crochetlady

saundyl, I never would have thought to check Amazon for crochet hooks. Couldn#t believe how inexpensive some of the sets are. I ordered a few...will only use a couple sizes but they were cheaper than buying some singles. Also found a piercing crochet hook. Didn#t even know such a thing existed. It will be great for crocheting the first row on micro fibre towels...they are very hard to do. Hands get really sore when I do that.

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Oh awesome.what is a crochet piercing hook?