December 2016 Frugal Chatter thread (all welcome)

[jasperandchar]

Did all of my returns today and got some free stuff at Sephora which was nice. Popped into Sears and found nice ornaments 50% off. Also was at Giant Tiger and picked up 3lbs of bananas for $1.68, Maple Leaf flakes of turkey, chicken and ham on sale for .99 cents a can, fudge was on for $2.99 and other items...I never seem to leave GT empty handed.

Wanted to ask everyone - I have frozen hot dogs in the freezer - any ideas of what I could cook them with to use them up? I would hate to waste them and really don't feel like eating hot dogs on a bun all week. Thanks.

I make pogos and no matter how many I make they are all gone by morning.

[jasperandchar]

jasperandchar[/URL] -are you willing to make Christmas more informal (no sitdown dinner but more like buffet style) to help with holiday plans with your folks? Or have your junior baker make a dessert table and you make one savoury dish or slow cooker meal? Just ideas to shift some duties around and keep the holidays easier for you. You definitely called the situation correctly weeks ago. Gift yourself for that call.

IF you don't mind my asking what sort of celebration, it sounds intringuing.

Yes ds2 will help with the baking, really low key this year a cheesecake & a 1 type of squares.

My mom said she will bring a ham which will be helpful. I need to get a turkey (I hate turkey BUT everyone else loves the stuff) so I will use points to get it for free

We do a buffet style (help yourself) and well since MIL doesn't help whatsoever (food wise or cleanup, prep) the dishes are an issues but I've got that planned as well. I will make things ahead of time so that I just need to reheat

[Frugalbigmama]

I make pogos and no matter how many I make they are all gone by morning.

I should try this!!!! Thanks for the idea

[jasperandchar]

Morning all,

I have the house to myself....yippee....snow day yesterday so 2 young men home.

I have a someone coming to get an item this evening so $15 richer.

Supper tonight is sweet & sour chicken and if feeling energetic I may make 2 recipes instead of just 1 (sweet and sour chicken) and something else.

Laundry is all done and hanging to dry.

I revisted the budget this am and well....eek.....Going to do another top level sdm redemption this week or next. I'm just not loving the new $100 spending thresholds, I'm hoping that it's not a the new norm.

Wishing everyone a wonderful day

[jasperandchar]

I should try this!!!! Thanks for the idea

And they freeze really well

[Frugalbigmama]

And they freeze really well

Care to share your recipe?

[Frugalbigmama]

Christmas Bonus. If you get one what do you do with it? Many years I just tossed it in savings. Past few years I spent some thinking it is suppose to be a "bonus" so enjoy it. Wonderland Season passes for family one year. Thinking I'm going to be boring and just put in savings. I can use it down the road for something if I want.

[Natalka]

Husband gets a bonus in Jan (hopefully, one can't be sure of it every year...). Usually the money would just go for regular household use but last year - finally - I convinced him to use some of it for himself, so he got a drill set combo thingee (gah, guy stuff I don't know the names of).

[Frugalbigmama]

Husband gets a bonus in Jan (hopefully, one can't be sure of it every year...). Usually the money would just go for regular household use but last year - finally - I convinced him to use some of it for himself, so he got a drill set combo thingee (gah, guy stuff I don't know the names of).

Exactly! You can not count on it that is why I don't count on it for Christmas shopping. To me it is free money. If I get it then great. If not then it wasn't meant to be and shouldn't be counted on.

[Frugalbigmama]

Really looking forward to my night away with my honey Friday. With his new job and my busy hockey player we seem to have less time together. Looking forward to our fancy free dinner out and free hotel room (casino comps ) Will make sure to bring my bikini for the hot tub!!
And finally have a good idea for my teen that I was worried about for Christmas! Will make the final decision on the weekend!

[Angela273]

We will be in Saskatoon for three days. My younger sister is letting us stay at her little place to avoid the hotel costs. She isn't expecting anything, but we will be sure to treat her...id mush rather give money to my sister vs a big company. We will celebrate Christmas on Dec 26 with my Dad's family. We plan on going to Fuddruckers and enchanted forest holiday light tour in Saskatoon over Christmas weekend. Our children haven't done either before. I haven't gone in years and Aunty will join us. She will write her last exam for the semester on Dec 21. We haven't seen her since September long weekend, just before classes started. I'm starting to get excited. We received a Christmas card with a cheque in it from my dad and his wife, it's for our children. I've already put in my meat request to my dad...he's trying to figure out a good deer jerky recipe but he keeps over dehydrating it. We made fake snow early this afternoon. It felt interesting to play in and very inexpensive to make. I have blocks of margarine warming on the counter. I want to make candy cane cookies this year. I haven't had them in ages.

[Ciel]

@jasperandchar -event is the annual patron saint day dinner. St. Nicholas Day is a very common one (Dec.19) for many families. Since it falls during Advent, the meal should be without animal or dairy products. YMMV depending on whose house you celebrate it at (some folks want their big roasts and eggy desserts), but our home version is fried fish & vegetables & oil-based sweets or dried fruit treats. Some dishes are old favourites of my parents but again, a long time ago they might have been ok given that larger families in their young days had to make do with more basic staples and saved certain dishes for special days.
@Natalka -thanks for the hot dog casserole idea! I like adding chopped cooked hot dogs to mac & cheese, sometimes with extra herbs but a casserole might be worth all the effort for a new dish!

I admired one clothing store's new window display-artificial snow was sprayed on windows and woolly fleece snow was on both of the window ledges (showing their knitwear offerings on the mannequins).

Ricardo's Cuisine French Facebook page has a short video clip on the Dec. 9 post where Ricardo and one host (I've seen him on RDI before) have 7 Christmas logs in front of them. One they were sampling was made with bananas and had a chocolate exterior with banana slices or chips. Need to snag that recipe!

[thriftygranny]

Christmas Bonus. If you get one what do you do with it? Many years I just tossed it in savings. Past few years I spent some thinking it is suppose to be a "bonus" so enjoy it. Wonderland Season passes for family one year. Thinking I'm going to be boring and just put in savings. I can use it down the road for something if I want.

We are small business owners so no bonus for us!! However we give our admin girl an equivalent to a month's salary as a bonus. We feel this is quite generous and our current staff member appreciates it so much as she is a 30 something single woman with a mortgage and car payment so we know it is appreciated. We had one girl who worked for us for 7 years and not once said thank you for the bonus(she was a single mother of 3 teens and money was tight). One year my husband asked her if she was happy with the amount which we felt was generous and she looked at him dumbfounded and asked why he inquired.He was honest and told her we felt it was rude not to acknowledge the gift. She stated that she earned that bonus and no thank you's were in order. We liked her as a staff member and she did do a good job but I always found her answer unsettling, it was like the bonus was expected. We continued over the years but we both kind of resented her attitude, our current girl cried the first year we gave her a bonus she was so happy.

[lizzie bargain]

Wow-I think that bonus is very generous. I would cetainly think a thank you would be in order!

[jasperandchar]

Care to share your recipe?

I will post it tomorrow, however, you need to add more milk than suggested as it's too thick.