November 2016 Frugal Chatter - All Welcome!!!

[Frugalbigmama]

Our Superstore carries the no name yellow box of dishwasher detergent for $3. I've tried all kinds of brands and this brand washes just as well as any other. So happy I found this - it is on the bottom shelf where one can't easily see it. Of course all the expensive brands are at eye level.

Thanks! Will keep this in mind for when I run out and can't get any for free

[sweet sparrow]

@Natalka: So sorry to hear of your BIL's passing. My prayers and sympathies go out to his family.

@avoncallingu: I hope your DH keeps his spirits up through all the chemo and radiation treatments. It certainly does take a toll.

I haven't mentioned it, but DH is going through that with MIL. She's currently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, but the treatments could extend her life. The doctors are not promising anything, which I suppose is to be expected with cancer. FIL's sister passed away only a few months after she was declared "cancer-free". I know it weighs heavily with DH and sometimes, he gets quite angry about it. One of the doctors said it could have been an after-effect of the stroke she had years ago, from which she had a miraculous recovery and was also able to stop smoking. Somehow, she "forgot" that she ever smoked and then never had cravings.

When it comes to your parents, you expect them to live forever. Well, I do, no matter how irrational it is.....

[Angela273]

I went to Wal-Mart this morning. The photos unlimited manager wasn't there, so I still couldn't fix the family pictures or order the other family pictures that we had taken at a park. I want them to send in Christmas cards.

I spent $104, which didn't buy much. I bought 2 big boxes of diapers (2x $2 coup), infant Tylenol ($2 coup), two baby toothbrushes (2x $1 coup, stocking stuffers), kids vitamins ($1.50 coup), 4 bags of old Dutch chips ($3 peelie), and apples ($0.66/lb). I used $12.50 in coupons and got $6 back from CO51 for Huggies diapers. I received my CO51 cheque in the mail today and currently have $16 in that account.

[Natalka]

@Natalka: So sorry to hear of your BIL's passing. My prayers and sympathies go out to his family.

@avoncallingu: I hope your DH keeps his spirits up through all the chemo and radiation treatments. It certainly does take a toll.

I haven't mentioned it, but DH is going through that with MIL. She's currently diagnosed with stage 4 cancer, but the treatments could extend her life. The doctors are not promising anything, which I suppose is to be expected with cancer. FIL's sister passed away only a few months after she was declared "cancer-free". I know it weighs heavily with DH and sometimes, he gets quite angry about it. One of the doctors said it could have been an after-effect of the stroke she had years ago, from which she had a miraculous recovery and was also able to stop smoking. Somehow, she "forgot" that she ever smoked and then never had cravings.

When it comes to your parents, you expect them to live forever. Well, I do, no matter how irrational it is.....

Thanks so much, I appreciate it.

Wishing for the best for your MIL; I'll add her to my prayers.

[Ciel]

Those with packed freezers-how do you communicate what's inside the freezer(s) to other family members?
-A new Post-it note or magnet holding a paper listing the newest additions
-a master list showing date of new additions and crossouts of last of any item
-a sign indicating where to find the spreadsheet or info elsewhere
-taping or posting the grocery receipts to the door with checkmarks or circles of items in the freezer?
-other method

I sometimes put a Post-it note on the freezer door to indicate when a certain item is inside. But there is no masterlist.
Since there's only the top freezer part of the fridge available, I tend to check twice per week to see what stragglers continue to sit in the space, verify if contents really need their boxboard packaging (could be down to last one of potpie-no need for box of 8 to take up room), and move things closer together to see what space is available. Usually the racks in the door are the last place to put anything. The main compartment is premium freezer real estate-sort of hard to know when I buy frozen berries and Eggo waffles if there will be room inside or will I have to squeeze the items somehow and try to minimize berries from being crushed (it's happened before). Beside the lingering cowboy steaks, there are two small packages of corn niblets hanging out. They will become part of lunch soon.

[coupon girl]

sweet sparrow sorry to hear about your mother-in-law -yes we wish our parents were here for ever -its 3 years since I loast my dear mom and I wish she was here for me to buy gifts for her ,her advise ,her hugs ,shopping with her ,her seeing her great grandkids ahhhh brings back memories this time of year
ceil-as for a freezer we have a small one we bought 18 years ago when we moved in -I only have it half full with the 2 of us -I don't have a list I just look in it now and then (I keep the meat in the basket to see the dates I put on them) I know I have a few bags of frozen fruit in there ,about 3 loaves of bread -I don't buy a lot of boxed frozen meat -so glad I have that freezer thou for sales
-the top of my fridge only holds a few items my frozen homemade soup,popsicles -keep these year round for my sore gum when it acts up,ice cream ,fish and a few meat pies -I keep a running total in my head sort of for both freezer -never have to throw frozen meat out I am on top of it pretty much
-well gotta go babysit ashlyn for 7.00 a.m -may have a kijiji sale tonight 10.00-havent had a sale in awhile so happy about this

[Frugalbigmama]

sweet sparrow sorry to hear about your mother-in-law -yes we wish our parents were here for ever -its 3 years since I loast my dear mom and I wish she was here for me to buy gifts for her ,her advise ,her hugs ,shopping with her ,her seeing her great grandkids ahhhh brings back memories this time of year
ceil-as for a freezer we have a small one we bought 18 years ago when we moved in -I only have it half full with the 2 of us -I don't have a list I just look in it now and then (I keep the meat in the basket to see the dates I put on them) I know I have a few bags of frozen fruit in there ,about 3 loaves of bread -I don't buy a lot of boxed frozen meat -so glad I have that freezer thou for sales
-the top of my fridge only holds a few items my frozen homemade soup,popsicles -keep these year round for my sore gum when it acts up,ice cream ,fish and a few meat pies -I keep a running total in my head sort of for both freezer -never have to throw frozen meat out I am on top of it pretty much
-well gotta go babysit ashlyn for 7.00 a.m -may have a kijiji sale tonight 10.00-havent had a sale in awhile so happy about this

It has been over 6 years for me and I still see things I want to pick up for him at Christmas time! I don't think you ever stop thinking of them.

[Frugalbigmama]

My last day of work for the week Looking forward to our mini 3 day vacation away. My sister splurged and is treating us to buffet/food passes at GWL since she doesn't want to cook etc lol.

[lilo0003]

FBM: I made a point this year of always taking advantage of a MIR if its a product I will use, (no smellies here). I think its been about 150.00 so far this year. It all adds up.

[Angela273]

Received a thick letter from PDAP yesterday, it says to expect a small additional cheque. We still need to upfront five figures to a restoration company to fix our crawl space from the flood. After the work is completed, then we submit the paid invoice to PDAP and they are supposed to give us a cheque for about 85% of the money we have to pay upfront. Sucks, but there are no two ways about it.

My brother contacted me this morning. He is coming for another day trip, so I'll care for his twins for part of today. The roads and visibility is worse than expected, so they aren't here yet. I've already revised my meal plans for the day.

My dad got injured at work s couple weeks ago. Everything has been submitted to WCB and he is waiting for physiotherapy.

[Frugalbigmama]

FBM: I made a point this year of always taking advantage of a MIR if its a product I will use, (no smellies here). I think its been about 150.00 so far this year. It all adds up.

Yes, this is my plan now. But I had years worth so that's why I didn't bother before (they don't work well if old)

[Ciel]

Sibling had an installer come today but no word to me (folks supposedly knew but Dad was sleeping or faking sleep in the living room). Mom was being asked questions that Bro should have handled so I roused him for that purpose. Ironically, I had handgathered leaves by the cable box about 45min prior when I decided to make use of the now-empty green cart to move leaves windswept into two spots (one big pile in front of garage-I took care of the edge near the mailbox-don't want CP to stop mail).

Decided I had to tackle the recipe pages from past two Longos and Food & Drink issues-most are now in the binder or in the binder pockets. Have some more miscellaneous pages to keep or to toss. Will put pages of items to look for at both stores in separate page holders-those pages do not need to be in the binder. Thinking of using a medium size gift bag or handled kraft bag to put any future clippings or free magazines inside so they are not piling up on other books or papers. Recycled about 5 other free magazines/mailed items so they are gone and clipped the coupons of course!

This afternoon, I was in a lousy mood so after sibling left, I rearranged some items in a small basement room and darn, if there are not TWO Swiffer Wetjet Pad refill boxes right next to the refill bottles of cleaning solutions. For one year, I've had a pad on the Wetjet but kept thinking sibling would get more pads this year. All this time, clutter (three boxes stacked in front of the shelf) prevented me from seeing the refills. Have the refills on a higher shelf and I've cut down the three cardboard boxes (making sure anything inside was aligned with related items on one of the two storage racks).
A third rack in the workshop had two shelves reorganized-there were green bin bags split over two shelves with painting supplies. No, like is shelved with like. Done.

Bro reassembled one of the plastic rack units yesterday and so there's junk and pots back on it. We still disagree over it and supposedly folks thanked him for putting it back up. I anticipate the other rack will be blocking space soon too. Where's my 3D pulverizer?

I foresee myself making an Excel recipe spreadsheet (on a long boring day) to organize the recipes by name, category, main ingredients, publisher & publication date. It will be easier to update than handwritten pages that I used to jot out then find I had no room for new additions or let go stale after months in a recipe binder. The spreadsheet will cover my current collection of recipes (written out, printed out or taken out from magazines I collected) plus the other binder with old food magazine pages I had saved when going through Mom's back issues when they were to be recycled. Have to find out if Central Library still has hardcover six month back issues of Gourmet in reference as there are a few recipes I cannot locate online but know they were early 90s items in the magazine.

The H&M ad page is taped on a wall and my Longos calendar is ready for December in my room.

Just for fun tonight, I'll make a huge Santa wish list and have a good laugh or two while enjoying a cup of tea. At least I'll get some handwriting put on paper.

[coupon girl]

-well had a rough day today watching ashlyn
first -my son was on nights so he needed to sleep so hubby and I took her to mcdonalds to play in their playground -nope we are cleaning -sorry lady at 10.00 a.m -gee why idnt they do it at 8.00 a.m when no kids were in there -so took her to a playground -kind cold out so didn't stay long
second- put ashlyn down to sleep for a nap in her pull-ups (she still wears these to bed for her nap and nighttime)we she had a big messy poo-so changed he and plopped her in the bath -went to pump some live clean -tearless oatmeal bath onto a wash cloth and the bottle was clogged so when I pumped it shot into my left eye -quickly got her out and back into bed-went and rinsed my eye out with water and iced it and had a cloth on it lying on the couch -let me tell you at 8.00 p.m my eye is still a bit sore and irritated this happened at 1.40-honestly could my day get any worse yes
3rd-i look on the moniter just around 2.30 to see if she went to sleep and I don't see ashlyn so son just woke up from nights -so we both went into the room the same time to see if ashlyn was reading on her floor -nope she was cleaning the headboard rails on her bed "I am cleaning nana with a huggies wipe in one hand and greasy hands from petroleum jelly -ahh it was all over the sheets her hands ,hair -she climbed on a soft luggage out of her closet to open the top drawer in her dressor and got the small petroleum jelly -out -wow we just stood there for a second then I said come on lets give ashlyn another bath
-just a life in a day of my babysitting-which can be a hard job at times

[Frugalbigmama]

Lol. Oh aren't toddlers fun? I am about to go away for 3 days with my 2 year old niece and am sure to be exhausted when I return.

[Angela273]

I just printed two $3 off wub 2 Canadian cheese products coupons. My printer mis-fed, so I'll have to tape one coupon together because it printed out on part of two different sheets of paper. Here is the link to the info from the link in the blog, which will get you to print from websaver.
http://smartcanucks.ca/canadian-coup...ntable-coupon/