Love the Savings Feburary - 2015 Frugal chatter

[sweet sparrow]

I`m doing the happy dance. Took my last prednisone today.

Hurrah!! Congratulations!

Well I called the bank again today and well it's not worth us paying a penalty and switching to a lower rate even at 2.5% crap, earliest I can renew without penalty will be April 2016....sigh...I hope the rates remain low especially with hearing that the bank of Canada might reduce the rate again in March or April.

Hopefully, the rates will be even lower when you renew. April 2016 will be here before you know it. Are there any other features added to your mortgage, like pre-payment privileges? Those are very handy in bringing down the total amount of interest paid or total length of mortgage, without having to wait for a rate decrease.

We are a lot wiser now and will be careful before we sign anything with the bank as I don't want to get screwed over again. If consolidating won't work in our favour we just won't do it. If I have to pay high penalties or high interest we might just shop out other banks and see what they offer.

@bobbiegirl2010 : Sorry to hear about your mortgage story. I was terrified that would happen when we first signed up for ours. Somehow, we were able to find a mortgage broker who explained all the terms and went through each paragraph of the contract and what it meant. It is a business, so I'm a bit annoyed by the extras that can sometimes be covered if you ask, like the appraisal, but for the most part, I'm happy. We got a mortgage with prepayment privileges and I loved throwing extra money at it, whenever we could scrape together $100. I think we got a much better deal than what our bank would have offered us.

Our friend managed to get the same rate as us through her bank (TD), so it's not impossible. She has no debt or credit otherwise, so I don't know how she does it.

I also decided that I am adding a budget line for stuff I buy knowing I am giving it away. I often pick up groceries or laundry for my brother or GF food for my friends daughter. It’s not to place a limit on it but more to see how much of this I spend & its currently captured in our grocery budget which I am trying to get a handle on.

@lilo0003 : Good idea! The things I pick up for family also go in my budget if it's something I need. I keep all the receipts and if they want to take my stockpile away (sometimes 12 packages of TP at a time!) I just deduct it from the amount spent. If it's something I don't buy, I keep the receipt with the item and add it to an ongoing list, but don't put it in my budget. The list I keep as a draft email, so I have access to it all the time. If ever there should come a day when I don't get the money back, I suppose I'll have to change the system. So far, it's worked for me!

Heard the baby's heart for first time today, makes it all the more real.

Awww... Congratulations! Your house is going to be even busier soon!

And if handsome actors walk up to me on the sidewalk and hug me, I certainly won't be offended (yes, it has happened, sigh).

Who?! I've only met Jamie Oliver, Mag Ruffman, Gail Vaz Oxlade (does she count?), seen George Strombolopolous, and Scott Thompson. A friend of a friend met Kevin Spacey. He was wearing sunglasses indoors, ran into her at the bookstore (literally!) and knocked all her books to the floor.

[Frugalbigmama]

Is this day over yet? The only good thing is dinner is 99% ready I do not want to spend anytime in the kitchen tonight! I'm really going to have to convince myself to go in the basement for a bit and not flop on the couch. But I'm on a mission. Will just sleep really good tonight!

[jasperandchar]

@Andit I've never heard of pineapple pie, sounds yummy

[jasperandchar]

Nat hope you are feeling better today, take care of yourself, rest and don't over do anything....

[jasperandchar]

coupon girl hope the meds start to work and you feel better, sounds like you have a nasty batch of the flu, stay warm, rest and take it easy

[bobbiegirl2010]

I have leftover rice and one cooked chicken breast in the fridge. I'm thinking of making chicken burritos for myself and BIL who's visiting. I have salsa, sour cream and avocados (to make guacamole) to go with them. I don't think the kiddos will eat this so plain chicken and rice for them (they like boring, I don't lol).

Also frugal tip I just learned today. I had a completely wilted bunch of celery that I was able to revive by cutting off the base and putting all the stalks in a glass 1/2 full of water in the fridge. I can't remember what website I found the tip on but it worked really well Also tried it with 2 bunches of green onions and it seemed to work for them too (I left the bases on those).

So far no food waste this week

[jasperandchar]

DH & I ventured out for pick ups for items sold while out in town

We ran into

home depot for some paint and other supplies,
Canadian Tire (nail clippers for the dogs)
M&M Meat market pizzas on sale this week for $3.99 (great fast dinner when in a pinch & of course a nice treat)
SDM for milk and fiber pills
Independent grocers for my grocery shop, I was so disappointed had to get rain-cheques for Italian sausages (fresh), tomato soup and janes chicken fingers....sigh....had a great offer on the janes for pc points but that got squashed .

So I put everything on my pc mc and transferred the cash from chequing onto MC bill payment right away when I got home TRYING TO ACCUMULATE LOTS OF POINTS to use in December when funds are tight

Wishing everyone a great evening and hope all of our feeling under the weather feel better quickly BUT please rest and take care of yourselves

Dinner tonight

[bobbiegirl2010]

Anyone have any good recipes for turnips? They need to get eaten up so I was going to make them with dinner tomorrow. I was thinking of roasting them with some carrots and beets maybe?? Maybe some onions too?? Not sure I have ever made turnips before (the little white turnips).

[bobbiegirl2010]

@jasperandchar That's too bad that you missed the pcplus deal with the jane's chicken strips That's happened to me before with apple juice - I was going to get 12 so I could get 300 points each and they only had 3 left I lucked out though because 2 weeks later they offered me an even better offer, 600 pts! The apple juice is only 83 cents a carton so I cleared the shelf and got 19 lol. The cashier couldn't believe how much points I got (11400 points for only $15.77 worth of apple juice - crazy!). I find they keep sending me the same offers over and over so hopefully you will see the jane's chicken strip offer again

PCplus has been very good to me so I'm sure you will love it too

[Angela273]

Disclaimer: my family is politically active.

There are currently different articles and advertisements being run for free in our local newspapers because the Sask. NDP are having their AGM and nominations this Saturday. My husband is running as a potential candidate. We just read the newest article. My husband had been interviewed for it, but the author knows a couple of people who are on our NDP executive locally. So here's the thing...the newspaper article announced my pregnancy! Dh was not the person who told her about it. I'm 11.3wks pregnant and there are a LOT of people in our small city that I have not told. We have still been telling people that we haven't told a lot of people yet. Well I guess it is out of the bag now! Ugh. This was not what I was expecting, but I'm glad that dh told me after he read it. It explains my daycare lady's comment when I picked up LO after teaching this afternoon. She had told me that I guess congratulations were in order, but I thought she had meant dh's potential nomination. I was going to tell her after I have my first ultrasound later this month. Dh jokes about marrying into politics because I have family members who have served in provincial politics for years.

[Granger]

@Angela273 What is wrong with people!!!???!!!

Congrats on your husbands running for candidacy though. I am irate for you.

[jasperandchar]

@jasperandchar That's too bad that you missed the pcplus deal with the jane's chicken strips That's happened to me before with apple juice - I was going to get 12 so I could get 300 points each and they only had 3 left I lucked out though because 2 weeks later they offered me an even better offer, 600 pts! The apple juice is only 83 cents a carton so I cleared the shelf and got 19 lol. The cashier couldn't believe how much points I got (11400 points for only $15.77 worth of apple juice - crazy!). I find they keep sending me the same offers over and over so hopefully you will see the jane's chicken strip offer again

PCplus has been very good to me so I'm sure you will love it too

I hope I get the offer again but the real kicker was they were on sale for $4.88 at Indepent which never happens so I was really disappointed, oh well I guess it wasn't meant to be.....like you said perhaps a better offer will come along.

The offers I get are normally pretty crappy to be honest only once did I get a really good offer on spend x on beef and get xpc points and well I got I think 20,000 points that day so I was happy.

you would think that it would be geared to what you purchase because they can obviously see your trends or purchase history I would imagine.

[jasperandchar]

@Angela so how did they find out, congrats to your hubby in his political adventure.

[Granger]

It has been a long time since I have cast a spell on SC. Angela's situation has fired me up. I smell a Skeeter in Saskatchewan.

Carpe retractum!!!

[Angela273]

@Angela so how did they find out, congrats to your hubby in his political adventure.

Which part? We are pretty certain of the couple that told her because they know the person who wrote the article. They are an much older couple and the wife is our current treasurer. Finding out that this information was in the article was by reading it after receiving the free newspaper in our mail box today.