December 2016 Frugal Chatter thread (all welcome)

[SassyAshley]

Oh my what a weekend.

Had to work Saturday as we were on inventory at work and hopes were high we were working at record speed and should have been set to be out early but nope. First something went wrong on our controller's end (not sure of all the details) but was told he got a critical error and we were in jeopardy or losing everything and having to start over. After about an hour or so that was fixed so I went to up load the rest of the data from our location only to have one laptop that refused to connect to the network which meant I could not upload and because this is just the way things go it was the one with 924 entries that would have had to be re entered manually. After an hour and help from our IT guy we do not know how or why but it decided to upload, personally I wasn't asking questions just being happy. Finally got home around 4 pm which I know isn't late but when leaving around 12:30 or 1 is tangled in front of you it seems late.

Then yesterday my plan was to clean up the living room, start wrapping and hopefully finish my brother's gift. Well that all went downhill when Mom decided to empty the freezer and defrost it, yes it needed to be done but I was hoping to wait until I was off work for Shut Down. Mom has booked the second week I am off, off so I figured we could tackle this then but nope apparently we had to do it yesterday. I must admit it is now a thing of beauty. Everything has been placed in bins and is sorted by what it is. If you want Chicken pull out the chicken bin and away you go. Also we discovered we are full stocked up on a few things which means we should be able to get through January without restocking.

I am now feeling so far behind. I still do not have brother's present done, I have given up on the one for my cousin's little girl so I will need to go out and pick something up for her, nothing is wrapped and I have no idea what desserts I am taking to Dad's. I am hoping maybe tonight when I get off work I can clear the coffee table and do some wrapping.

I must admit I kind of wish it was next Monday, that would mean I am on shut down, Christmas would be over and it would finally be time to relax.

Well better get back to work, I am trying to get 488 pricing reports done before Thursday so I do not have to do them during shut down as they are due when we get back. Have a wonderful day everyone.

[Angela273]

I busted used this revolt to turn some sour milk into cottage cheese curds. The hardest part was waiting patiently for the milk to get up to temp. 2L of milk made about the same amount of dry curds as you would get from a 750ml tub of regular cottage cheese.
http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre...sour-milk.html

[Natalka]

Angela, does it taste very different, because it's not really a cost savings?

[Angela273]

Angela, does it taste very different, because it's not really a cost savings?

I think it tastes pretty good. I always find that store bought cottage cheese has too much liquid in it. The milk cost me $1.50. I bought the cheese cloth from the dollar store in the summer from Dollarama. I think that a new jiffy cloth would work in place of the cheese cloth, then it could be washed and used again.

[Natalka]

I agree, regular cottage cheese can be liquidy. However, there are some things I make (like nalysnyky - Ukrainian crepes filled with a cottage cheese mixture) that require dry curd cottage cheese - it's hard to find at times, and pretty expensive.
I just might give this a try at some point, thanks.

[coupon girl]

well up at 4.10 a.m today -figured I may as well do a load of laundry well it was hard watching ashlyn yesterday as I was feeling like crap -but she was so good and understood she ran to the washroom and went all by herself (mind you I think if not watched she used a ton of toilet paper)
-fell a tiny bit better today -still stuffed but taking emerg-c ,drinking lots of fluids too

[Natalka]

Have a great day, all!

[Frugalbigmama]

Hope everyone is having a great day! Have a work lunch today so not sure how much work I will get done this afternoon (even though I am swamped!)
I took taco meat out for the boys for dinner. Tonight is tidy the house up night.

[Angela273]

We can't find one leg for our Christmas tree, do we had to buy a new tree. I bought a 6.5' pre-lit tree from Canadian Tire for $55, regularly $165. When we went to put it together we discovered that it was defective, so Dh took that part back to CT and exchanged that part. We got the tree up last night. We put out colourful lights on the tree too. Decorations are only on the top half of the tree. Christmas stockings and wrapped gifts are in our bedroom because the babies would open them. I'll put them under the tree when we return from Saskatoon, then I'll take a picture of the kids with it before opening...as longs as I remember.

Today has been a productive day so far. Dh had to go to a work breakfast, so I took our son to school and fuelled up the van. My first load of laundry is nearly done in the wash, then I'll put on my second load. I emptied the chest freezer by putting some stuff in the fridge freezer and the rest fit into two medium sized boxes, which I put on our deck in the shade. Once the frost chunks have loosened, I'll give it a good wipe down, put the organized food back in and get it running again. I'll be picking our son up from school in an hour. I have to get refitted for my compression stockings this afternoon because these new pairs aren't fitting right, so I'll have to take all the kids with me to the hospital at 2pm. Tonight's supper will mostly be Ukrainian leftovers from last night. I have condensed my Christmas baking hopes and we'll see what gets done in the next few days.

I found small drops of red liquid on the driveway where I park my van, so I booked it into the shop for Thursday morning. Hopefully it is an easy fix and hopefully it will be covered under my extended warrantee.

[jasperandchar]

@coupon girl hope you feel better soon, I have a scratchy throat so I think I'm coming down with something as well.

DH and I went over the boys items for the stockings and Santa and well they need to be added to. DH will venture off to Cabela's on his way home tomorrow evening for ds1 BUT again the problem rest with ds2. Someone suggested a mixer, so I will be picking up a mini mixer from Hamilton beach on sale at C. Tire this week as he loves to make milkshakes and this particular one has the mixer cup as a drinking cup

and we'll also be getting him a Belgian waffle maker as he loves to cook. BUT there still will be the issue of gifts from us but I believe we are going the money root at this point.

I had a chat with dh tonight and after we chatted I announced and he agreed that I will not be hosting Christmas next year even if my folks have nowhere to go. My mom is easy to get along with and helpful BUT my dad is the Grinch and has no sensor as to what should be said and not be said, he has serious foot & mouth disorder. I'm on pins and needles the whole time when others are around and you just never know what will be said. AND the main reason is health wise I just can't handle hosting with my depression.

Wishing everyone a great afternoon.

[momof5boys]

@coupon girl hope you feel better soon, I have a scratchy throat so I think I'm coming down with something as well.

DH and I went over the boys items for the stockings and Santa and well they need to be added to. DH will venture off to Cabela's on his way home tomorrow evening for ds1 BUT again the problem rest with ds2. Someone suggested a mixer, so I will be picking up a mini mixer from Hamilton beach on sale at C. Tire this week as he loves to make milkshakes and this particular one has the mixer cup as a drinking cup

and we'll also be getting him a Belgian waffle maker as he loves to cook. BUT there still will be the issue of gifts from us but I believe we are going the money root at this point.

I had a chat with dh tonight and after we chatted I announced and he agreed that I will not be hosting Christmas next year even if my folks have nowhere to go. My mom is easy to get along with and helpful BUT my dad is the Grinch and has no sensor as to what should be said and not be said, he has serious foot & mouth disorder. I'm on pins and needles the whole time when others are around and you just never know what will be said. AND the main reason is health wise I just can't handle hosting with my depression.

Wishing everyone a great afternoon.

Good on you for keeping the lines of communication open and knowing your limits.

[lizzie bargain]

Add me to the sick list again too. I had driven 1/2 way (as far as Banff) yesterday to visit my friends for a couple of days in the BC mountains but turned around due to high winds and whiteout conditions-there was no way I was prepared to drive higher up through a couple of mountain passes . Good thing I came back as today I have peri-orbital cellulitis-an infected eye hich has spread to the tissue underneath. I just started on heavy duty antibiotics and hope I can nip it in the bud and be better for Xmas.

[Natalka]

oh, gee, lizzie - couldn't have just 'normal' pink eye, could you? Hoping it clears up very quickly for you - any type of cellulitis can be so very dangerous.

[lilo0003]

I have one gift left but I may go with a gift card. I was able to buy my nephews gift for about 15.00 less than my budget so I feel like I need to balance his with his sister. I may do a gas card as he is on co-op and needs to drive everyday. I also need to go to Costco as the older son is giving my dad a photo that he took, it was what my dad wanted. We already have the frame. My plan is Costco on Friday. Wish me luck.

[Angela273]

I recently found the original hand written receipt for the purchase of our chest freezer. We bought it in September 2005 for $455.95, which bought us a reliable 12 cubic foot freezer. I am now starting a list of freezer items that we are either out of or nearly out of. Boy does that nearly empty freezer look good though. I'm looking forard to the cooler full of neat that we'll be bringing back from my dad, then I'll just keep an eye on the flyers and start to re-stock accordingly.