January 2017 Frugal Chatter - All Welcome!!!!

[Angela273]

My gas bill is double this month, rates have increased not sure what portion is cap and trade (big secret in Ontario).

Finished my dental crown - I was lucky the dentist gave me a bit of a break but still very expensive. He also gave me some good news (sarcasm) - I will need a root canal on another tooth down the road due to a huge filing

Oh that sucks. I've had bad dentists in the past and the bad work that they did in my mouth has recently cause 2 of my teeth to crack. We have dental coverage through Dh, but no secondary coverage top up to help with the extras.

[coupon girl]

-I don't even want to talk about bad dentists- as the roof of my gum is bleeding a bit now from being so dry

[momof5boys]

Oh that sucks. I've had bad dentists in the past and the bad work that they did in my mouth has recently cause 2 of my teeth to crack. We have dental coverage through Dh, but no secondary coverage top up to help with the extras.

We are thankful our dentist is a no nonsense type and always gives us options to think about. One of my teeth at the very back needed work but he suggested to just pull it since it was at the back anyway That's what he did and I haven't missed that tooth at all.

[jasperandchar]

Living in rural parts of ONTARIO is financially draining, I can attest to that.

House insurance, hydro, vehicle insurance, groceries, gas/commuting, even the landline is more Bell Canada in general is more because you can't get discounts for having internet as high speed internet is not available. Internet is more expensive and you can't get unlimited gigs. Property taxes are pretty expensive as well and you have to bring your garbage/recycling to the dump.

Supper tonight was leftovers and/or something quick to fix such as grilled cheese sandwiches.

Dh is going out for supper/drinks tomorrow with some friends from his CYW program when he was in college.

Wishing everyone a great evening

[coupon girl]

wow I got a great deal tonight at shoppers -I bragged about it
(1)tide pods 14's 2/10.00
(1) downey unstoppable 2/10.00 -minus 4.00 in coupons -3.00 for the stoppable and 2.00 for the tide pods and .50 bonus from checkout51=.50 cant beat that deal
-wow this week I have taken advantage of some really good checkout51's -more money in my pocket down the road

[Frugalbigmama]

Living in rural parts of ONTARIO is financially draining, I can attest to that.

House insurance, hydro, vehicle insurance, groceries, gas/commuting, even the landline is more Bell Canada in general is more because you can't get discounts for having internet as high speed internet is not available. Internet is more expensive and you can't get unlimited gigs. Property taxes are pretty expensive as well and you have to bring your garbage/recycling to the dump.

Supper tonight was leftovers and/or something quick to fix such as grilled cheese sandwiches.

Dh is going out for supper/drinks tomorrow with some friends from his CYW program when he was in college.

Wishing everyone a great evening

Yes INTERNET!! that is the other thing. So many people posting on swaps saying that internet is expensive and sucks!

[Frugalbigmama]

Friends of mine had a $1400 internet bill one month (years ago). For some reason it was going to a far away tower and that is why it was so high. They had the bill set up for automatic payments. Try fighting a bill you already paid for. This is why you do not let any company automatically bill you.

[jasperandchar]

Good Afternoon everyone,

FIL came over this am to drop off a calendar as we can never seem to have enough in this house. Ds1 has a calendar in his room ours as well, dh's man room has 1, I have 1 for dh's work pays with amounts and pay periods AND I also have 1 for my meal plan.

Anyone else have a calendar fetish (haha)?

The inlaws usually do groceries on Friday mornings so when he stopped this by morning I asked if they were going out and if I could tag along. We were down to the last slice of bread, last bag of milk, last roll of toilet paper, no water bottles so when he said yes I quickly asked to tag along .

My independent grocers had the 9-10 packs of chicken drumsticks for $5, I grabbed 10 packages so we should be okay until the next sale. I also noticed the post cereal various types were on sale for $2.49 I grabbed the limit of 8 of Honey bunches of Oats Apple & Cinnamon and used 8x $2 coupons = .49 a box . The romaine 3 packs were 50% stickers grabbed 4 bunches = 12 heads for $10 so I'm supper happy. I'm going to send dh this week to get more Honey bunches of oats for that price . I got an apple crumble pie for $4 (50%) can't make it for that price and some deli fried chicken with 50% sticker so 10 pieces for $5 can't cook it for that price (fresh chicken drumbsticks as mentioned are $5 alone + hydro.

So tonight's supper is deli fried chicken with ceasar salad and apple crumble pie.....WIN WIN as dh is meeting friends for drinks/supper tonight. I'm having shrimp w/ rice as the fried chicken is a treat the boys will enjoy AND I'll enjoy the all you can eat shrimp BECAUSE I don't have to share with dh.

I then asked if I could quickly pop into SDM, I got tp Royale velour 4x $2 in coupons, hit the bread clearance jackpot (English muffins, burger buns etc all $1 each). Spent $36 got 9K in points.....yippee....

Wishing everyone a great evening & weekend.

[Frugalbigmama]

Good Afternoon everyone,

FIL came over this am to drop off a calendar as we can never seem to have enough in this house. Ds1 has a calendar in his room ours as well, dh's man room has 1, I have 1 for dh's work pays with amounts and pay periods AND I also have 1 for my meal plan.

Anyone else have a calendar fetish (haha)?

The inlaws usually do groceries on Friday mornings so when he stopped this by morning I asked if they were going out and if I could tag along. We were down to the last slice of bread, last bag of milk, last roll of toilet paper, no water bottles so when he said yes I quickly asked to tag along .

My independent grocers had the 9-10 packs of chicken drumsticks for $5, I grabbed 10 packages so we should be okay until the next sale. I also noticed the post cereal various types were on sale for $2.49 I grabbed the limit of 8 of Honey bunches of Oats Apple & Cinnamon and used 8x $2 coupons = .49 a box . The romaine 3 packs were 50% stickers grabbed 4 bunches = 12 heads for $10 so I'm supper happy. I'm going to send dh this week to get more Honey bunches of oats for that price . I got an apple crumble pie for $4 (50%) can't make it for that price and some deli fried chicken with 50% sticker so 10 pieces for $5 can't cook it for that price (fresh chicken drumbsticks as mentioned are $5 alone + hydro.

So tonight's supper is deli fried chicken with ceasar salad and apple crumble pie.....WIN WIN as dh is meeting friends for drinks/supper tonight. I'm having shrimp w/ rice as the fried chicken is a treat the boys will enjoy AND I'll enjoy the all you can eat shrimp BECAUSE I don't have to share with dh.

I then asked if I could quickly pop into SDM, I got tp Royale velour 4x $2 in coupons, hit the bread clearance jackpot (English muffins, burger buns etc all $1 each). Spent $36 got 9K in points.....yippee....

Wishing everyone a great evening & weekend.

Great haul!!

I didn't find much I wanted this week in the flyers. Went to Foodland at lunch and grabbed the 8LB box of oranges $3.99 for DS.
And 4L milk on at No Frills for $3.97 (and box of cookies for $1.97 ) So spent a total of $9.93.

Dinner tonight is lasagna. We made it a few weeks ago and popped it in the freezer so tonight is a good night for it since I wanted a good filling meal but didn't feel like being in the kitchen all night. Tonight is movie night on the couch!

[sweet sparrow]

Just checked the credit cards - $3,000 over this past week for DH's work expenses. DH had better get those reimbursed as my maternity leave cheque will not cover that! Our safety buffer was much bigger when I was working so I will have to keep a close eye on things this month.

The annual amount for car insurance will show up on the CC soon, as well as the amount for health insurance and my work pension. Gas bills are also high. I am horrified by the expenses this month.

Oh, and baby has spit up! A day in my life...

[coupon girl]

hey all -I just relaxed and did puzzle today -cleaned bathrooms and was too tired to vacuum the stairs -will do in the morning
-supper tonight was pizza pizza -I did a survey from 24 days ago when we had one and I got 3 free pop with my order
-yeah daughter is coming Monday to sleep over with the baby cant wait to see him again -gonna give him the top I got for a 1.00 at walmart
-I had great customer service from bell today -I know so many talk about their servers but I am happy with the service I have gotten the last few times

[Granger]

Living in rural parts of ONTARIO is financially draining, I can attest to that.

Chiming in an alternate perspective. I live near the GTA between the major cities of Hamilton and Niagara Falls in a rural zone. My location is what I call rural with amenities. We are on a garbage route, have natural gas and a cistern. Colour for ease of reading.

House insurance - We pay $1400 yearly 2800 square foot with three out buildings. $1,000,000 full replacement payout.
Gas - I do equal billing. Our bills are about $150/month. I am not sure how rate increases have affected payment, but I plan to keep a closer eye.
Vehicle insurance - We pay $2000 yearly for both vehicles full coverage. Our newest is 2009. We both work under 25 km away (~20 min rural drive).
Groceries - I find we use up what is in the fridge because I don't want to drive to feed my cravings...though the convenience store at the end of the road charges prime and has gotten some business from us on occasion e.g. can of Coke or their amazing Samosas
Gas/commuting - this is a large budget for us. We pay $400 a month in fuel for the vehicles.
Landline - we don't have one, just cell phones.
Internet - we use a local company, line of sight, unlimited usage and stream all of our media (no cable) through Apple TV, internet is $90 bucks a month and our Netflix is $10. Our shows we stream online are free within a week of airing on CTV and Global.

Our largest cost is home upkeep. The home is 60+ years old and things need to be done, but we can't do it all at once. We have been here 2.5 years and have deep cleaned, removed a run down arena, turned a chicken coop into a shed and fixed a gazebo. We are finishing our replacement of the back door and light renos to the landing. My dad financed the gazebo and made it his project. We have probably spent about $500 on the back door area, and $300 was the door and DH did installation. I think we do okay! You guys help!!!

[Granger]

Before Attachment 325515
After Attachment 325517

The photos were showing but now aren't. The links should work if you want to see the Gazebo.

[Angela273]

We used the $550 warantee towards the purchase of our 55" Samsung smart tv. We paid the difference of $250. We just hooked it up and posted our old 50" Samsung plasma tv for sale on a garage sale Facebook page for $150. Multiple people contacted us. We held it briefly for a couple who drove in 1/2hr to pick it up. We were truthful about the small defect at the outside edge of the screen. Sold within less than 2hrs of posting it. So it only cost us $100 oop to upgrade our tv. We are happy with that. We currently have free HDTV channels and we can really tell the difference with our new tv. Have it hooked up to cable box, my computer, and the home wifi. We only have one tv in the house, we refuse to have a tv in any bedrooms. Although this new tv is slightly larger, it is more energy efficient, so we should notice the difference on our power bill.

[coupon girl]

nice angela -upgraded t.v ,we only had one t.v but using my mom's in the bedroom -yes I never wanted one in the bedroom either but when hubby is watching some documentary,city council or and old movie -I will go upstairs and watch the small t.v 28 inches I think flat screen (only if one of my favourite shows is on like hells kitchen the other night )
-I am reading from the library so many books on less is more ,clutter etc some have some pretty good tips and its helping me downsize all the clutter in life either from donating or selling on kijiji or finding someone else that can use the items (like hubby's sister who is on a disability she asked me the other day if I had an extra blanket and she would take a few tops of mine if I wanted to get rid of them -no problem I like to help others out
-just made a dinner date with my girlfriend (that I had to cancel in dec cause of sickness) we are going to swiss chalet on a weeknight -I will use our caa card and 2 can dine for 15.99 quarter chicken -of course white is extra -cant wait to see her I have I have a small xmas gift for her -spent under 10.00-just a few bath products