Love the Savings Feburary - 2015 Frugal chatter

[Frugalbigmama]

Beautiful here today. Took a drive to look at a house since it was an open house today and it caught my eye in the real estate paper before. Beautiful but not really in an area we want to be. Nice to look.

[saundyl]

Good Morning Everyone,
Still sick, I think this cold could take down an elephant, it seems like every time I start to feel a little better it hits me somewhere else (chest, sinuses, throat), so yeah pretty much over this.

Wrote out a grocery list, not a lot we need. Mom was going to go yesterday but decided against it, than said maybe today well I can say there is no way I am going out today. I think me, my chair and my laptop have a date today. I have some work to do, we have an increase going through Monday so a lot of behind the scene work to do which a good chunk falls on me. But I think it is best cause it will keep me inside.

Only downside is I am looking at all of the things around my house which need to get done. But that is going to have to wait as I just do not have the energy or ambition right now. So instead I will hang out in my chair and hope the little elves or fairies come and clean my house for me.

Hope everyone has a great day.

I hope you feel better soon

[saundyl]

QOTD - Do you have little "Gremlins" that crop up and eat away at your budget.
What do you consider to be the Gremlins? Do you have a "Gremlin Fund" as well as an Emergency fund?



I think we have gremlins from time to time and they are usually things like school hot lunches or book orders, suddenly needed clothing because something was outgrown or lost. forgotten things like oilchanges or car registrations. I do not have a gremlin fund although after reading about some persoanl financebloggers who do it kinda makes sense to have one.

[lilo0003]

saundyl: this is my 1st year with a budget and the stuff I forget keeps cropping up, my professional fee, CAA renewal, even the new stickers for the cars. Each of the reminders came a few months before so I was able to work them in. But now they are all part of the plan.
We have a car account. DH drives a 2006 nissan and while it is fine now anything can happen.

[Crochetlady]

Stopped to see my niece this morning. In conversation it came up that her daughter got an ipad for Christmas. I`ve been thinking about getting one so I started asking questions. When she found out that for now I basically want to play games on it she said I could have her tablet that she doesn`t use anymore. So I`ll learn to use it...see if I like before I spend the money for a router. Not real sure about it yet.

Also stopped at Spinrite again since I was in Listowel anyway. Managed to find more yarn...not as much as yesterday but at least some different colours. It was a zoo today. I was there at almost 1:00. the parking lot was full. I`m glad I didn`t go this morning...there was a bus there from Kitchener. It`s not a big store and there aren`t really any aisles...there are boxes piled everywhere. They don`t have any carts, just baskets, so when the sales are on they often hand you a clear garbage bag on your way in.

[Natalka]

Crochetlady, I like my tablet - since we only have a desktop, it's been really nice to have something portable.

Still cold here today, but it was a stay at home day, so that's okay.

Just finished making 15 quiche tarts for my husband to take to a meeting this evening.

[SassyAshley]

Thank you everyone for the well wishes.

So I have decided tonight is not going to be a frugal night. Since both me and mom are sick and neither of us have much ambition we are going to order pizza, it is as close as we can get to food magically appearing in front of us.

I took a nap this afternoon (wow I must really be sick as I do not nap), my chest is finally feeling better but my head is still bothering me. I keep getting really light headed and feel like everything is spinning, I am really ready for this to stop.

Mom picked up an extra 8 hour shift for tomorrow so I will try to get some stuff done around the house tomorrow when I can work at my own pace. The first thing to do will be laundry we only did one load this week since I did not get back until late Sunday night so needless to say our laundry basket is overflowing and is screaming to have someone pay attention to it, lucky me.

My working has been put on hold as they are running Month End reports so I have been booted from the system. Figure after dinner I can log back in and keep going.

Hope everyone is having a great day

[saundyl]

Crochetlady I love my tablet I use it for email...here.. reading books.its always with me

[jasperandchar]

God morning all.

our meal plan is slightly derailed as i fell asleep early last night and didnt remove the ham from the freezer. BF now would like to order chinese food and we can do our ham & scallopped taters tomorrow.

The concert sounds like it would be fun!

Nancy we all really appreciate you creating our monthly threads!

The boys have their cousin over so they are happily playing something on the xbox (its so nice to hear them happy and not bickering their cousin is a very good mediator without knowing it)

Our Sewer Line is having issues - bf is going to snake it tonight. We think though its an issue wth the town line as things ARE going down and others on the street have commented about having a similar issue. The town workers are still on strike so we arent even sure who to call. i told bf im not going to have a tizzy about it unless theres poop surfacing in the bathtub. If its on our property to fix though its our cost sadly.

On a happy note - i made my final payment on a loan from 2 years ago car repairs my mom loaned me money for. So I have opened a "car savings account" and i plan to put the payment into that account for either more repairs (ive spent about $2000 on repairs since november on it and service) or a new to me vehicle AFTER the end of september when my business loan is paid off. I took $200 from my tax return to fund the account for now

congrats on paying off the debt to your mom, that's amazing and such a relief I am sure And September is just around the corner - great momentum and a great end to February

I love the frugal chatter thread & the people in it so it's really So it's my pleasure, thanks

[jasperandchar]

on the tablet front I would suggest 1 that has a keyboard, mine doesn't and I don't use it as I hate to peck while typing, we got jaden 1 from WM from Santa with a cover/case & keyboard and he loves it and we only paid $100.00+ tax and stupid eco fee (lol). Its just some food for thought to consider @Crochetlady

[avoncallingu]

Hello everyone! I'm asking for your thoughts and prayers for my dear husband.

Monday my dh will undergo surgery to hopefully correct a "side-effect" of some surgery that he had a year ago. That surgery was performed in an emergency situation to correct a "side-effect" from the radiation he had to battle cancer 13 years ago. He is now on a clinical trial for a new cancer drug and is doing well on that front, but hopefully this new surgery won't introduce any "side-effects" to be dealt with.

We won't really know if this will be effective for about another 2 months after he heals from the surgery, but hopefully, the surgeon will find this to be a straight-forward challenge.

Thanks in advance! We will be leaving tomorrow so that weather doesn't get in our way. I'll be on and off the net when I can get to it.

Wishing YOU all the best as well, for I know that many of you face your own challenges! This community is such a support to us all!

[jasperandchar]

Re Gremlins they are the worst to kill a budget especially the stupid small ones that add up such as milk orders, popcorn orders and last minute field trips which my youngest's school is so guilty off - it erks me to know end that they decide on a Friday that Monday will be a field trip.....like really????. Ds2 doesn't get pizza order as he doesn't like the pizza as they changed the supplier several years ago.

I have found that this year I seem to be on top of the other items such as
CAA renewal which arrived yesterday and is due at the end of MARCH so in a sense it's great because I can add into my March budget which dh & I have not yet perfected or tweaked to perfection .

I find what throws us off are those renewals or bills that are only due once a year and to be honest I only have started to look at all my payees list every month to try and catch those items atleast I have so far in 2015 but I am sure I will miss a few along the way , it might be something to consider making notes in my budget binder for future references.

BUT so far no Gremlins account, may consider down the road when funds are a little more plentiful.

[jasperandchar]

@avoncallingu sending prayers for your hubby and his recovering and for you as well, hugs and keep us posted when you have time, take care of yourself and enjoy your travel day tomorrow together (hugs to you both).

[jasperandchar]

So dinner didn't go as planned, I had no propane (sigh) so I decided to pan fry the 1/2 ground pork and 1/2 ground moose mixture on slow and well to my amazement and delight they were actually enjoyable of course for those of you who have eaten or eat game meat (wild meat) there is a different taste of course but Logan ate his burger and didn't say anything until I later asked, he thought they tasted a bit weird which is way better than not eating any at all like other times. Jaden ate 1/2 and then said is this moose, I told him it was 1/2 and 1/2 and he refused to eat the rest BUT I will admit the burgers were enormous each burger was actually the size of 2 (dh wanted enormous bugers) to go with those big a$$ burger buns you get at Costco you know the ones I mean....huge. I ate the leftover 1/2 of Jaden's plus had 3/4's of my own again they were enormous.

So thumbs up I say @thriftygranny

[saundyl]

Avon ihope all goes well!