December 2016 Frugal Chatter thread (all welcome)

[jasperandchar]

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!

Have a great time

[jasperandchar]

@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!

Thank you for sharing, it sounds delightful

[jasperandchar]

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.

That is an extremely generous bonus, kudos to you and your husband for being so kind.

[thriftygranny]

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

Well that is what we thought as well, it is a very stressful job as it is in the financial industry so dealing with people's investments can be very taxing. That is why we decided to give that much to show our appreciation and to help her have a great Christmas. It is funny how you think you have a perfect employee and they leave and you think they are irreplaceable because training is tough and then you like the next one even better!!

[Granger]

My husband got a bonus last year. I don't know if he will this year. It is not expected. We thanked the head elder and put it in our savings. He is off with Shingles right now and will hopefully get back to work (church) soon. There are a lot of misconceptions out there about Shingles, I feel like I need a FAQ page to give ppl when they ask about how he is. Most are really not asking how my husband is, they want to know what is it REALLY and is he CONTAGIOUS.

In case you want to know: it is a reactivated chickenpox virus (as it lays dormant after you had it) and attacks the nervous system. Shingles is not contagious, but there is a small chance of passing on chicken pox to those unvaccinated or who have not had it, like babies under 2 years. And when you work in a church...many fall in those categories. Fortunately, our youngest was vaccinated a month ago! Like chicken pox, once the sores are scabbed, no longer contagious.

We decided to adopt a family for Christmas last minute. We have done other charitable acts for Dec, but when we heard 11 local families were still unsponsored, it made us feel like we could sacrifice a little more. I had fun shopping for a specific family and feel good about the hamper of food, gifts and gift cards. I was able to buy perishables and the food bank has a fridge to hold the items for the family. So I bought cheese and butter. I avoided anything "classic" for the food bank as I think they top the hampers up with the staples...pasta, canned goods...as they weren't included on the suggested list.

[Natalka]

Granger, I hope your husband clears up soon, and that he's not in too much pain. My older brother (61) had it a few months ago.

[lizzie bargain]

Sweet Sparrow-Thinking of you as I was reading about the high cost of childcare-particularly in the Toronto area. I know you have often commented on that before. Hoping your wee bundle is here soon so that you can celebrate the holidays with her/him!!

[jasperandchar]

speaking of @sweet sparrow she hasn't posted in a short while, perhaps her new baby has arrived
@Granger wishing your husband a speedy recovery

____________________

I made dh a collage of items to purchase at SDM on his way home, yes it's a cut out of the items to get with quantities and coupon match ups (haha), it's the best way for him to visually see what I am talking about as sometimes there are multiple items on various pages and sometimes a list just doesn't cut it. He's been warned not to get anything that is not on the list as we have enough to do a 95K redemption this week or next.

Supper tonight is pogos, this was in the meal plan even before the question about using up hot dogs. I will try and make a better copy of the recipe since I will be working on this for supper anyways.

My grocery list is made for the next set of flyers, not very much needed thankfully.

I will venture out with the inlaws on Friday BUT have a tiny budget to work with as December was an expensive month as dh started seing a chiropractor and goes twice a week. They offered a payment plan but after speaking with our insurance companies the Chiropractor was wrong in saying we could send in monthly claims for reimbursements which is not the case if on a payment plan. IT certainly paid to call the insurance.

Wishing everyone a great day

[Frugalbigmama]

I took a mental health day today. Did 3 loads of laundry and all put away. Made bed with fresh sheets . Wrapped up all the gifts for my sister/brother in law and my mom. Sorted the gifts for my boys. Took a roast out of the freezer and it is almost thawed in sink. I have already peeled potatoes and have in pot on stove. Took bread out to make garlic bread. Will serve with green beans.
Will shower after my lunch break lol then go to Sportchek (looking for shoes for my teen) and then take a look at SDM. Then I think I will clean a huge shelf in my room. Will post stuff on it for sale.

[lilo0003]

FBM: I don't know if you have a Nike outlet close by but they had an extra 30% off clearance on the weekend. For 190.00 I bought Logan 3 pairs of shoes. 1 pair was a LeBron James high top regular price was over 200.00.

[momof5boys]

We live in a subdivision with street parking - so parking is for anyone and can't be reserved. We've been bombarded with snow the past week and hubby and I have been out shoveling these parking areas. It ticks me off that people will risk sliding into other people's cars trying to get into spots that have not been shoveled out and will do NOTHING to help the situation. There was a car parked beside our home for days and, after we shoveled out the two parking spots in front of that car, the owner nicely got in her car, revved the motor and drove off without lifting a finger to help. So I was back out there again this morning to get that cleared. We are talking two feet of snow here! It seems nowadays it is every man for himself! Most homeowners here won't even shovel the sidewalk beside their homes.

[Frugalbigmama]

FBM: I don't know if you have a Nike outlet close by but they had an extra 30% off clearance on the weekend. For 190.00 I bought Logan 3 pairs of shoes. 1 pair was a LeBron James high top regular price was over 200.00.

We don't ( small town) but that is ok since my picky teen only likes "Vans". I do pretty well at Sportchek, buy on sale, use coupon and use GC that I bought at 20 % off. And receive scene points

[Frugalbigmama]

We live in a subdivision with street parking - so parking is for anyone and can't be reserved. We've been bombarded with snow the past week and hubby and I have been out shoveling these parking areas. It ticks me off that people will risk sliding into other people's cars trying to get into spots that have not been shoveled out and will do NOTHING to help the situation. There was a car parked beside our home for days and, after we shoveled out the two parking spots in front of that car, the owner nicely got in her car, revved the motor and drove off without lifting a finger to help. So I was back out there again this morning to get that cleared. We are talking two feet of snow here! It seems nowadays it is every man for himself! Most homeowners here won't even shovel the sidewalk beside their homes.

That's sad. I am very lucky to have kind neighbours. DS and friend went out to shovel f
driveways for $$ and another neighbour went and did the end for them with the snowblower to help them out

[Angela273]

A friend dropped off their Christmas presents for our family. They bought a large good quality sled that will fit our 3 young children. We'll open the wrapped presents when we return from Christmas visiting.

Picked our son up from Pre-K and I found a lap dog wandering around by itself. I warned it up in our van while I called the number on the tag and that place gave me the owner's name and cell number. Their sons forgot the gate open and the dad didn't realize when he let the dog out to go pee. It's -35 with the wind chill. We drove across town for my son's 1pm haircut. While waiting, we took the stroller across the street to Salvation Army. I entered their free 12 days of Christmas draw, free with any purchase and a different basket each day. Paid $2 for a metal water bottle, a pre-K teacher activity book, and a different learning book. Our son loves books that ask him to find stuff, etc. I'm hoping to go to the library at 6pm to their free wrapping event. I'll take the kids small gifts and wrap them at the library. It is free and they provide the wrapping paper, tags, ribbons, etc. It should be fun, as long as Dh is home in time. Then I want to stop at No Frills to get bananas, Crispix (-$1 coup - $4 CO51).

[Frugalbigmama]

Well change of plans. Storm has hit our town. Staying in. Perfect night for a roast beef dinner! Smells so good in here!