October 2016 Frugal Chatter Thread All Welcome!!!

[jasperandchar]

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

Check out the prices of freezers at Costco many people overlook their appliances.

[jasperandchar]

How do you cook the cheaper roast cuts, I have no luck cooking them in the oven as they just dry out? Do you marinate them, cook them in the slow cooker????

__________________

Afternoon everyone

Yesterday I cooked a roast pork in the crockpot it still turned out dry (was a cheap 1/2 pork rib roast).

Tonight we are having rib steak and shrimp....drooling just thinking about it.

Need to figure out the rest of the weeks meal plan BUT I will admit I have been doing really well with taking things out of the freezer the night before. Dh and ds2 take leftovers for lunches so that makes short works of them. No more leftover nights .

I'm getting so excited for Christmas as it should be financially stress free which makes a huge difference. I normally host but this year I'm hoping I don't have to but that will depend on whether or not my folks get invited somewhere else. Not going to stress about the meal now, way too many great and exciting things about Christmas, it's so magical.

Wishing everyone a fantastic day.

[lilo0003]

J & C: I learned this trick from my mom, she does it on the BBQ but it works in the oven too. For a cheap pork cut I cover it in onions & peppers then season it and wrap it with tin foil and bake on the BBQ or oven. It comes out so tender and beef works as well too.

[Frugalbigmama]

@lilo0003 Think I just got the same deal you did the other day. Farmers Market Pork and Beef Touriere pies on for $3.33 (which is a great sale price really) Almost bought one the other day but decided to wait out till they put 30% off stickers on and they were on today!! So bought 5 for $2.33 each. Great deal. Can't make it for that price. Making one tonight (will make pasta another night) and freezing the others. Will be a great dinner when my honey has to work late.

[Frugalbigmama]

I noticed the ribs were marked down to .99LB. Good thing my honey is off since he has 200 PC pts per $. I texted him and he is there now lol. Can't beat that price and both boys love them so it is a great Saturday night "take out style" dinner for us.

[Frugalbigmama]

How do you cook the cheaper roast cuts, I have no luck cooking them in the oven as they just dry out? Do you marinate them, cook them in the slow cooker????

__________________

Afternoon everyone

Yesterday I cooked a roast pork in the crockpot it still turned out dry (was a cheap 1/2 pork rib roast).

Tonight we are having rib steak and shrimp....drooling just thinking about it.

Need to figure out the rest of the weeks meal plan BUT I will admit I have been doing really well with taking things out of the freezer the night before. Dh and ds2 take leftovers for lunches so that makes short works of them. No more leftover nights .

I'm getting so excited for Christmas as it should be financially stress free which makes a huge difference. I normally host but this year I'm hoping I don't have to but that will depend on whether or not my folks get invited somewhere else. Not going to stress about the meal now, way too many great and exciting things about Christmas, it's so magical.

Wishing everyone a fantastic day.

I cooked a pork roast in the crock pot last week, 8 hours on low and it was perfect. Maybe you are cooking it too long or on high? Gravy makes it good too My youngest hates it on his own. Add gravy and he asks for 2nds and 3rds.

[sweet sparrow]

I'm sure not for you but for me your pregnancy has gone by fast

Nope, this pregnancy has dragged like molasses in January. That's pretty much my speed nowadays.

Oh, my - I had a little soccer player too - have you tried singing?
Hope it gets better for you!

I haven't tried singing, but it seems to calm down while walking, just like our first! Doctor recommended it as well, saying it will help the head move into the downward position, so I've been trying to as much as possible! Unfortunately, we've had quite the temperature drop and cold temperatures and an eighth month pregnancy do not go well together if you have a long way between bathrooms!

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!!

How did you guess? I was just going to confirm that the doctor finally said the head was in the downward position! Another positive report was that he said I was exactly the size I should be, so baby is growing normally and is a healthy size. So there, to all those women who tell me I look large! Baby and me are perfect!

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.

Those do not sound like unfrugal things. Just a run of bad luck. Unfrugal is going to a large grocery store eight months pregnant and hungry. Now I'm eating chocoate....

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'm glad you picked up the diapers. I noticed that my CO51 said "not many left" for the Huggies offer and thought of you.

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.

Yesterday, I noticed Dempster's bread is $2 at FreshCo. The $1 printable coupon is still available when I checked this week, if anyone needs any. I picked up two loaves of bread at NF of the Country Harvest bread that DH and LO like because I had 600 points WUS $3.

@Sweetsparrow -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.

For now, I think we'll go without a dishwasher until the new baby is on solid foods. Then we'll see how things go. That seems to be the word of the day. Postpone a dishwasher, postpone a new car, hang on for as long as I can....

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.

Our pasta, which LO loves, was formerly $4.99 per package at RCSS. Now it's gone up to $7.49. Sigh.

[Ciel]

@Frugalbigmama -I'll have to check on a past receipt regarding the sliced bread. I did not get this week's special but did buy a Wonderbread with 50% off sticker. Not certain I still have the receipt. Regarding prices-earlier this month in Rexall, I noticed the reg. price of Woolite is now over $14. It was about $13.49 before Oct-I watch for 20% off and 25% off flyer deals as I on occasion will tote a jug from there if no stores close to me have it on special. Have not seen $7.99 deal on it in months. $10.49 at Fortinos.

Think Sept. budget is 98% accurate. Glad I remembered a Sobeys -AM flyer from Sept-it was the last time I bought Old El Paso items for the bonus points and I recall having bags purchased to carry the items home. Plus a Staples visit for 2017 planners. Am going to use an envelope to store daily receipts (but will move household item receipts to an existing envelope) with my 2016 planner. Also will send myself an email each day with current budget-not slacking anymore on $ tracking.

I'm ready for a cup of tea before tackling a job cover letter and resume (yes one of the files I needed from 2015 was found yesterday in e-mail) editing session.

[Frugalbigmama]

Some of the up coming sale flyers are posted. Made out a quick list. Some deals I want to get but really need to stop shopping! But we gotta eat! Nice thing with the freezers full of deals we don't have to buy any meat really at all. I may buy one tray of the BLSL chicken coming on sale at RCSS but we have about 6 whole chickens and 6 Turkeys to use up!!

[lizzie bargain]

This week DH noticed that our cable/internet/phone bill was going up $15 per month-so time for my annual call to ask again for their loyalty discount-30 minutes on the phone equals $180 in annual savings so I think it was well worth my time. I also called Nabob because one of the green bags of coffee we drink all the time, tasted bitter to both of us. They were very nice and said they would mail me coupons for more than the value of the coffee. Otherwise a quiet day here.

[Angela273]

I'm having a heck of a time with PDAP. This morning she called me to say they'd pay $x, which was only 1/28th the quoted cost and only two steps of what was recommended. I pushed the issues, asking for a second opinion. She called back a little while later saying that they would also dig the contaminated soil out of our crawl space if we hired this company. I got her to send me this in writing to try to ensure that we don't get shafted. When I called the restoration company he told me that they have been burnt by PDAP too many times, which is why we have to pay the full amount upfront, before any work is done. Once the work is done then we are supposed to submit the paid invoice to PDAP and wait for them to reimburse us for whatever amount they say it qualifies for.

I was finally able to get ahold of the right person regarding our furnace installation. One of the reasons that they didn't come to our house last week was that they didn't even order the horizontal furnace for our crawl space. The new furnace is supposed to arrive this week and hopefully be installed before the weekend. We won't be able to run it because the crawl space hasn't been cleaned and treated yet.

This whole thing is stressing me out.

edit: They are supposed to be at our house at 8am tomorrow to replace our furnace. He says that we should be able to safely run our new furnace without concern of contamination.

[avoncallingu]

Angela- at this point, I would call an advocate- such as CTV to get this moving - or you MPP- this is just not acceptable! You have small children to keep healthy. This was a disaster not just an optional Reno!!!!!

[Frugalbigmama]

Happy hump day!!

DS has an awesome lunch today! A steak sandwich on fresh bread! Told him not to expect it everyday lol. I always make my teen a Tupperware container of dinner if he is out/working etc. Well he hadn't eaten his steak dinner (he works in a restaurant which is great because he eats well there and now isn't eating me out of house during the night :))) So I sliced up his steak and youngest DS will get another steak sandwich tomorrow!
The meat pie for dinner last night was really good! I cooked bacon on a cookie sheet at the same time as the pie and made a really good ceaser salad Will have the same for dinner tonight since youngest didn't eat any pie (apparently he doesn't like it lol) so he had leftovers from fridge with his ceaser salad. Can't please everyone!

[jasperandchar]

I cooked a pork roast in the crock pot last week, 8 hours on low and it was perfect. Maybe you are cooking it too long or on high? Gravy makes it good too My youngest hates it on his own. Add gravy and he asks for 2nds and 3rds.

7 hours in crockpot on low and it was like sawdust

[jasperandchar]

Morning all,

Just cooked 2 packs of pasta, I have the shrimp thawing and will use up tons of peppers from the garden, this will be our lunches for the rest of the week.
@lilo0003 I will try the foil as no matter how many times I purchased a cheap roast (pork or beef) it just doesn't pay in the end because no one wants to eat it. We are a bit of meat snobs I guess, I won't buy steak just to have steak, I will either buy rib steak because it's the only steak we love or do without because giving the dogs 1/2 the steaks is no savings in the end.

Now that the cooler temps are here to stay, I will get the boys to alternate weekends, 1 will make dessert while the other makes supper then rotate the following week. They really enjoyed the cooking and were way less picky I will admit. My oldest 16 next month is starting to broaden his taste bud horizons eating or trying certain things on his own which is interesting at times.

Mon - Roast pork with mashed potatoes, gravy
Tues - rib steak with shrimp pasta as side
Wednesday - homemade burgers with fresh buns
Thursday - Chicken drumsticks with scalloped potatoes
Friday - meatless
Saturday - kids????
Sunday - sweet and sour chicken with chicken fried rice

Wishing everyone a great day.