October 2016 Frugal Chatter Thread All Welcome!!!

[Frugalbigmama]

I bought a "junk drawer" organizer on the weekend. So tonight I plan to dump the junk drawer out into a box and start fresh. Will do this after dinner whiled relaxing in the family room watching the tube. Going to try and do a new little project each evening this week (on top of the regular things, laundry, dinner, dishes etc)

[thriftygranny]

Happy Monday!

You will love your drawer when it is done FBM!!I found some great organizers at Winners last year and reorganized my kitchen drawers and I'm proud to say they still look organized and tidy, just gave them a clean last week!!

Sweet sparrow I hope you can get some comfortable time soon, maybe the little one is turning and hopefully accomplishes his or her trek soon!!

Angela, I hate it when people drop in or visit on short notice, we have family from BC that will text and say they will be in the area on certain dates but I can never nail them down to a specific day or time, they just show up. I really enjoy them and they are the only cousins my son's age so it is important we spend time together but four extra mouths to feed and bedrooms to get ready takes some prep time!! I would prefer visiting than running around trying to get lunch on the table and putting fresh linens on the beds for them!!

Well my daughter and I had a great batch cooking day, we started at 9 and finished a bit before two today. We made enough of everything for two meals for each family, we made pork carnitas and home made corn tortillas, Jambalaya soup which was a new recipe but it is amazing, ginger 5 spice turkey meatballs, and black bean chili. Dishwasher is running and everything is labeled and in the freezer , all the meat was either bought on sale or short dated and we planned our menus around that, next week we are going to try some new recipes. It such a great way to spend the day with my daughters.

Hope everyone is enjoying their day!!

[Natalka]

thriftygranny, that batch cooking sounds wonderful - not just for the food, but for the family time!

[thriftygranny]

It sure is Natalka, we all look forward to it. I used to do it with both my adult girls on the same days but it got too complicated, the one I cooked with today had a very serious eating disorder in her twenties and while she is much better she has strong food dislikes with beef being one of them,she has been recently diagnosed with Eosinophilic esophagitis, so she has to restrict wheat and dairy to see if those are the allergens causing problems, we are both adventurous though with trying new things and we love spices!! My other daughter and her family are beef eaters and like very plain food so the two tastes don't mix very well. I was disappointed at first but find I am enjoying the individual time together!!

[Natalka]

@thriftygranny , you had mentioned the roasts you found at Co-op were small, we had the opposite experience yesterday. Smallest one husband found was just over 3.5 kg so just over $23 - we cut in in half and froze them; such nice meat, though!

Also on my Co-op shopping list was the lean ground pork for 5.05/kg - but (who knows why? lol, not even him!) he bought lean ground chuck at 7.69/kg - I would never buy it at that price, but it sure made great meatballs for tonight. Also made enough meatballs for another meal, froze over a pound just of the meat, and will cook up a pound of it with taco seasoning tonight.

My fave buy, though, was the splurge - back ribs for 8.80/kg (frozen)- I've started getting a few packs of them (they come in twos) when they come on at that price, because I'm always concerned they won't be that price again! They are the BEST ribs ever!

[lilo0003]

Lol, sweet sparrow it was a typo of course. I would have made out like. Bandit with such an offer. I did end up taking advantage of that one when I dropped DS1 off at work. Lots of price matching and the need for a roast for dinner. I had forgotten to take one out of the freezer and we are pretty traditional in our Sunday roast dinner. I did throw a chocolate bar in at the end for Dh to hit 75.00. But at at point it's like free chocolate.
This past month has been decidedly unfrugal. DS2 is in the second phased of braces and the coverage is tapped out. Pup needed surgery at 1500.00 and I smashed my phone beyond repair. All Things we planned on just not all at once. Although my new phone does make me happy. On the frugal front still no furnace on, but without the fireplace functioning I am not sure how much longer we will make it. The fireplace repair happens Thursday. But I do love a challenge.

[Angela273]

I stepped out to Wal-Mart this evening. I used $4 in Huggies coupons and $6 from CO51. I still need to take pictures of the receipt to get my Huggies rewards points through the new app. I also SCOPed a package of Oreo cookies, but it was a little complicated before I finally got them for free. Scanned at $2.97, I took a pick of the shelf sign for $1.97.

There is enough leftover sweet & sour pork, rice, and boiled veggies that we can have it for supper another night.

[Frugalbigmama]

Good morning! A sunny but cool morning here! Tonight is house tidying night! Didn't get much done on the weekend...too much fun lol.

No plan for dinner but thinking I will whip up a quick pasta since DS likes that and I have fresh bread to use up that he likes too.

I will also take something out of the freezer for the crockpot in the morning. Will make rice tonight so that we just have to heat it up tomorrow and grab a romaine to make ceaser salad. A plan!

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
I managed to get my whole to do list done last night which surprised me as I was ambitious when writing it. I got the following done:
Load of Dark washed & folded
Dishwasher Emptied and Reloaded
Lunch Dishes (which cannot go in the dishwasher) Washed
Dinner made and cleaned up after
Front hallway cleaned
Tonight's dinner prepped and in the fridge so I just have to make the sides tonight

Tonight I need to:
Made the sides to dinner (thinking sweet potato fries)
Move stuff away from the raids in the living room & dinning room (looks like we may need to give in and turn on heat as it is supposed to go below 0 here over the next few days)
Bag up everything in the kitchen that needs to be moved downstairs to go in the stockpile room

I sat down with Mom over the weekend and discussed what needed to be budgeted for around the house. Looks like our next purchases is going to be a new freezer for the basement. Our current model is not a frost free freezer and the frost builds up quickly and freezer burns things quite quickly. Since we rely on our freezer so much for bulk purchases and batch cooking we have decided this is something important we need to do. So now it is time to start looking at our options and see what the budget will be.

Well better get back to work. Have a wonderful day everyone

[Ciel]

I dunno, here it is mid October and I have not been all that thrifty since mid September BUT yesterday on the way home I realized I had forgotten to grab bread. Rather than double back to WM or NF or anywhere else I pulled into Mac's Milk in the plaza close to home.
Maybe I am way out of the loop when it comes to gouging but when did charging between $3.49 and $4.50 for a single stinking loaf of bread become o.k??
My usual cost would be $1.67 - $2.20 a loaf and even then I dislike it if there are no better sales around, or coupons to sweeten the OOP.
I paced back and forth and believe it or not I walked out with none! ha ha
Guess the miser in me is still there. I found a 24 pack of small dinner buns in the bottom of the freezer when i got home and that was what I put in the breadbox for the gang! No one even asked.

Noticed that Fortinos has Old Mill cracked wheat sliced loaf on special for $1.67 this week. I had not seen any loaves on clearance so seeing that price was better than $2.29 plus HST.
Artisanal bread or bread made in Canada costs more. Min. wage in Ontario went up on Oct. 1-have seen some grocery item prices trend up as result.

[Ciel]

It's been a wild week. DH started chemo again which we are happy for, but trying to make sure he gets food, meds, rest etc. is an on going challenge. Plus, in London, we have to pick up supplies for the nurse who comes to change his dressings.
I did manage to fly in and actually got 2 SCOP s yesterday. One for $7.00 worth of pasta, which I had to fight for and one for Dawn dish detergent which was rather, but not completely easy.
Because his chemo started Tuesday, I had to cancel our newly acquired cleaning helper and I don't think it's going to work as Tuesdays are the only day she had open and we won't be available for a couple of months with irregular Tuesdays off.
He has been totally exhausted and sleeping 90% of the day.
I scrubbed a bathroom today- with a toothbrush, no less.
And now I am pooped but it's time to think about supper.
Angela- I am so happy your little guy is feeling better.
The rest of you are so busy! I am going to try to live vicariously through your great stories for a while. I won't be getting out much.
DH is feeling guilty that he can't contribute right now. But I reminded him of all the times he's cared for me when I have been sick.
And I do recall a certain promise...."In sickness, and in health." Which I am honoured to keep.
BFN!

You and DH are a team! Some relations of mine don't do "team" in their own relationships, so I live vicariously through those who share their teamwork posts here.

[Ciel]

Managed to get my October budget spreadsheet mostly restored. I think I am one snack bag out in terms of $3 something.
Now trying to restore my Sept. numbers after Sept. 4. Good thing I use the loyalty cards at SDM and Fortinos-have dates of transactions and totals. Some guesswork on whether purchases have more than just food items. Have to check Air Miles for any big Sobeys shops. My purchased bags total was in the 80 cents range for Sept but I did not jot dates in my planner-I know one weekend I got 4 bags. Missing USB is still on the lam.
Found some photos and documents in email accounts and have them on USB 2 plus on laptop.

Have to prep winter boots this week-polish and spray. Old NB shoes are gone (as of yesterday). Wearing Mom's old runners with permission to wear them out then to toss them . I was not keen on looking for new shoes (clearance store does not have anything I could use) nor having money spent on them.

[Ciel]

@Sweets parrow -would a countertop dishwasher be a help with regular dishes? I know that the machines have to be used at least once per week to keep the gasket seal on the bottom flexible or it can dry out and cause leaks on the floor or cabinetry.
@Andit -spike your soups or drinks with spices or tea. Do you like seaweed snacks? Wishing you a quick perkup after your cold. I have been sort of on the verge of a cold so spices are going into rice, soups and oatmeal.

[Frugalbigmama]

Noticed that Fortinos has Old Mill cracked wheat sliced loaf on special for $1.67 this week. I had not seen any loaves on clearance so seeing that price was better than $2.29 plus HST.
Artisanal bread or bread made in Canada costs more. Min. wage in Ontario went up on Oct. 1-have seen some grocery item prices trend up as result.

You should not be charged HST on bread. Are you sure that is happening?

[Frugalbigmama]

Noticed that Fortinos has Old Mill cracked wheat sliced loaf on special for $1.67 this week. I had not seen any loaves on clearance so seeing that price was better than $2.29 plus HST.
Artisanal bread or bread made in Canada costs more. Min. wage in Ontario went up on Oct. 1-have seen some grocery item prices trend up as result.

Funny you say that you notice the prices going up. We went shopping at RCSS on Sat and I said the same thing. I really noticed the prices were up on many items on the shelves (nothing I was buying ) Even more reason to buy fresh and on sale. It's the processed stuff I notice going up and up.