December 2016 Frugal Chatter thread (all welcome)

[Natalka]

Hi, all! Hope you had a great weekend!

At least mine ended well with a great visit from our son, who came for supper - then stayed for hours after!

Made a big roast beast supper - and I knew the roast was big (cross rib roast on sale from a while back, had one huge one, so cut into two portions which were each more than four pounds), but wow, we all ate a lot and there's so much left. Son took enough roast beef, gravy, and roasted potatoes for two meals, and there is more than enough beef left for us for a meal, and probably sandwiches. Roasted it long and slow, so it's very tender - and with lots of garlic cloves shoved in, so it's very flavourful.
Also packed up some other food for Milan to go, as well.

He had hurt his hand badly at work last Wednesday and I hadn't seen it until today - still looks pretty bad, swollen and bruised, but he says it's better. He's on modified duty at work, which is hard for a mechanic - however, he says the guys are good to him about it all. He'll check back in with the doc in a few days.
Oh, it hurts to see one's 'baby' hurt, no matter the age!

[barbis9]

Went to the YMCA Strong Kids turkey roll and won a turkey and two tickets to a Bulldogs game. Was glad to buy a $20 ticket that goes towards helping kids and adults who can't afford the YMCA.

[lizzie bargain]

J and C-it was the Murano that my friend said used twice as much fuel as her new Juke.

[jasperandchar]

J and C-it was the Murano that my friend said used twice as much fuel as her new Juke.

thanks for the clarification Lizzie!!!

[jasperandchar]

Went to the YMCA Strong Kids turkey roll and won a turkey and two tickets to a Bulldogs game. Was glad to buy a $20 ticket that goes towards helping kids and adults who can't afford the YMCA.

win win, great to support the YMCA and awesome you won, I guess you don't need to buy a Turkey for Christmas!!!

[jasperandchar]

Morning everyone,

I had such a productive day yesterday and so happy with what I accomplished!!!!

Supper tonight is double batch of sweet & sour chicken with fried rice.

My stand up freezer looks awesome and much more organized.
@sweet sparrow I hope you take it easy before your new bundle of joy arrives.

Laundry is on the go, the couch blankets are wash and hanging to dry, I'm going to start cooking on the woodstove this week to keep the hydro costs down. I did that quite a bit last winter and it was amazing how much of a difference it made.
@Lilo 0003 enjoy your week off

Wishing everyone a fantastic day.

[jasperandchar]

Inquiring Minds want to KNOW!!!

How is your freezer organized?

[jasperandchar]

Inquiring Minds want to KNOW!!!

How is your freezer organized?

Shelf #1 - top is JUNK - fast food (chicken fingers, pizza etc)

Shelf #2 is poultry (chicken & partridge) and fish

Shelf #3 is beef

Shelf #4 is pork and homemade pasta sauce

[Frugalbigmama]

Good morning! Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Well our romantic dinner out didn't start off well on Friday. My honey had tried all week to make reservations. No answer and voicemail full. So we just went at 6:30 ish Friday night. They were packed. So he still wanted to go out for a nice diner (we will use the GC another time) so we went to another fancy restaurant in town. They were busy too and said we could get a table in 45 mins so we decided to have a glass of wine in the bar. We also ordered an app ($11 for bruschetta) Well an hour went by and girl never came to get us like she said she would so he went in to ask. She forgot about us so we were seated and ordered our meal and then the waitress came to our table and told us that is was the owner that served us in the bar and that he wasn't charging us for our wine or app! (3 glasses since I had 2 lol) Sweet! Our dinner out took 2.5 hours! But we enjoy each others company so it was ok And saved us $40 off our bill which was awesome!! Our meal was really good too (we have a hard time eating out since my man is such an amazing cook so we are usually disappointed when we go out)

Yesterday we had another date day at the casino- free lunch and dinner and I did well again. I also have over $130 in loonies/change that I will save in my special jar. Not sure what I am saving for but will decide when it is full!

Tonight will get a few things done around the house and will start wrapping while watching tv. Time is ticking!

[Angela273]

My brother called me yesterday when I was out shopping. He drove back yesterday afternoon. I'm waiting for him to drop his twins off for the day. He just texted to say they are still sleeping. We are under a winter storm warning, the snow and wind is supposed to last until Wednesday. Today is my mom's birthday, so we've been texting and I sent her new pictures of the kids.

I currentky dont don't have any daycare kids, since my daycare family moved. I have had three inquiries in the last few days. Here's hoping that I can get some daycare kids that will meet my family needs.

I haven't had any unusual abdominal pain since Friday. I have an appointment with my GP tomorrow morning. Hopefully he has the other test results.

[Frugalbigmama]

Inquiring Minds want to KNOW!!!

How is your freezer organized?

I have a chest freezer (free) (would love an upright but waiting till I get rid of junk 1st!

I have 2 reuseable bags in the bottom filled with surplus and the rest is just piled on top lol. I try to dig and take stuff from the bottom (1st in 1st out)

[Angela273]

We also have a chest freezer. I'm the one that does the shopping and most of the cooking, so I just remember where stuff is. I put a box and a small clear tub in the bottom of the freezer. The tub holds various meat that we have packaged up from family packs. The box is full of bacon that is standing up on end. There is bacon in a grocery bag in that box, which is the newer bacon. The hanging basket has beef and bison that my dad gave us, plus blocks of cream cheese for baking. Under neath the hanging basket is where I keep the bags of frozen berries for fruit smoothies. I keep the Icecream at the opposite end of the freezer. I also have a section for frozen veggies, which I keep sorted in grocery bags for easy digging around. I also have other things other things like perogies, cabbage rolls, and bagels in the bottom of the middle of the freezer. A 4pk of bread is on top. This chest freezer is currently about 2/3 full. I want to eat it down more before we visit Dad in Saskatoon as he will send us home with more meat and I was to defrost the freezer before then. I'm prepare to temporarily put some things out to the garage in boxes or the blue cooler for a day while I clean the chest freezer.

I keep a bit of commonly used items in the fridge freezer, like open bags of perogies, frozen veggies, and frozen fruit.

[Frugalbigmama]

Fridge/freezer- I do the same- keep the open bags for stuff on the go/ice cream/fruit for smoothies etc

I also will put a roast/meat in the fridge/freezer if I am planning to use it for that week then (pull it from chest when I think of it and then it is handy when needed) Which I think I will do tonight- Pull a porkroast for the slow cooker for Wednesday.

[thriftygranny]

Just cleaned both my freezers and defrosted and reorganized. We have a large chest freezer in the basement which we keep all our game meats in, Hunting season just ended so it is very full of elk, deer, moose, geese, ducks , halibut, salmon, pheasant and grouse. All different meats are kept in separate boxes so they are easy to find, the top boxes are a bit heavy for me to lift right now to see what is underneath but it is manageable!.We have a smaller chest freezer in the garage that holds beef, pork and chicken and I have a few boxes of convenience things like chicken fingers etc, all frozen fruit and vegetables are kept in that one. We also have an extra fridge in the garage and I keep all bread and baking I do in the top of that one. The freezer above the fridge in my kitchen is for opened bags of veggies and fruits and things like homemade breakfast wraps fro grab and go meals.

[lizzie bargain]

I just have the small freezer at the top of the fridge and I confess it is not too organized-stuff goes in however it fits and sometimes we have to hunt for things a bit.