July 2017 Frugal Chatter Thread

[Angela273]

I took twin boy grocery shopping with me at Sobeys blue Friday sale. It took about as long to checkout as it did to get the groceries in my cart. $105.xx oop, $1.50 in coupons, $4 CO51, 330AM earned, redeemed two rain checks for Black diamond marble cheese and Green Giant frozen mixed veggies, eggs, milk, bread, perogies, Herbal Essences shampoo and conditioner, Temptations cat treats, and sausages with bonus AM. I now have another Shell gas coupon for 5c/L off. I also filled my monthly prescription and earned 7x AM.

edit: I was looking at my Sobeys receipt and I don't think they gave me all the bonus Air Miles from the rain checks that I redeemed.

[Ciel]

It was cool and sunny today. Decided to cut grass mid-afternoon just to have the task done and leave Saturday open for other possibilities. I had a few cans of Fresca, sugar-free grapefruit pop. Tasted similar to a Radler beer but sweeter and with no kick. However, my eyes were feeling a little sore from the pop consumption so I made sure to have some fruit and cooked rice for supper to help with hydration.
I've been making sure to consume our green lettuce this week, use up the reduced produce, and stay with pasta and herbs (fine change from 4-5 days of hot dogs and buns, both on sale last Thursday). Grocery shopping will happen tomorrow or Monday. Took a second look through the grocery flyers to jot some specials to keep in mind.

Yesterday I went to Walmart to get the 15cent exercise books (32p ones) x 4. Be aware that the 40p books are 97cents-I saw them first before I found the box with the fewer pages and sale tag. I like how Walmart has two zones near each other with the featured stationery specials plus other items one may need for lunches, art, writing, etc. I took a side trip to Value Village to look over clothing and check the selection of women's belts-saw a few prospects, some of which even said made in Canada! I need a belt for pants as I do not want to alter my navy ones anymore beyond what I did a month ago.

[Ciel]

@avoncallingu -that is so wonderful that your pet and your brother's pet are getting acquainted. Yes figuring out where stuff goes or if it stays is a big deal in a new residence. Hope your brother can provide you with some insights on his storage needs and that he has some organizers to help with his things to be kept in place. Your choice to locate near your friends and family has been a good gift for you--awesome that your boxes have another purpose after they leave your home!
@Angela273 - agree with the other members that you did well in getting a free children's play structure to add to the summer days for the kids! Thought the kids might get some fun out of the construction workers-glad they noticed the children's interest! Super grocery efforts on your recent trips. Loved the garden photos! The kids' shovels are so ideal for the gardens.
@SassyAshley -good to hear about the lifetime warranty on your faucet (home use ones have that perk). Think Lowes only has chrome/steel versions in stock. About work-you know what's best for you. Good to listen to your body and mind as to what you need/want. See if you can get some time outdoors-glad you had two days off to enjoy with your Mom (your team efforts are really continuing at home-yay!).
@lilo0003 -new kitchen wave/rep! Glad that project is done and everyone is enjoying it. You and DH are prepared financially for the latest chapter in his work story--ahead of so many other Canadians!
@Frugalbigmama -I enjoy reading your daytrip adventures this summer. The summer jar of fun remains an ongoing source of wonder to read about.

This week, I've been trying to find out about accommodation plans for sibling and Mom's trip to the States in November. No plans made to have their own rooms booked-the intention is relying on relatives' goodwill (such a jumped shark insight from my POV considering kids/parents have daytime routines). So I sought three possibles places to stay-two of them offer a good discount for stays more than 2 nights. One location is near the Phoenix airport but it has a shuttle bus to airport and location is not far from the zoo or downtown if sibling rents a car for a few days--no interest from sibling. Well, if the November hotel rates (high season) do not stun him, maybe a relative saying no beds for you will get the message home to him.

[Natalka]

Happy Caturday, everyone!





Today is our 28th wedding anniversary - wowsers, where did those years go?
Another hot day today - as was our wedding day...

Working on shopping list for the week - nothing major, just occasional pickups.

Have a great day, all!

[Frugalbigmama]

Congrats Natalka! Hope you have an extra romantic day!

[SassyAshley]

Congrats Natalka

[coupon girl]

congrats nat on your anniversary

[Angela273]

Happy Anniversary Natalka.

Had good timing again today. Someone posted a nice playpen for free on a local garage sale page and I was the first to respond. We already picked it up and thanked the family.

We were able to pick up some sun hats from Dollarama for $2.50 each for our twins. Baby girl has needed a new one for a while...I was hoping to get another one with a chin strap, but have kind of given up.

I picked 1/2 a gallon of fresh garden peas again this morning. I also picked a large handfull of yellow string beans and ate the first ripe yellow pear tomato fresh off the plant. I'm planning on doing kabobs on the BBQ this week, using some new zucchinis. I think we could harvest some red potatoes soon. As you can guess, we aren't buying much fresh veggies, but we are still buying fresh fruit. I love having a garden, even if it does take a lot of work.

[SassyAshley]

Pretty busy day around here. I stripped the beds, washed and re made, figured as long as I was doing laundry I might as well do our regular laundry too.

I also cleaned the Kitchen, that took a bit of time as there was quite a bit that could not go in the dishwasher so I had to wash by hand.

There were some cherries to use up so I made a Cherry Ricotta cake. I was hoping to do more baking but I ran out of time.

For dinner I made Bruschetta Pasta with Cesar Salad and a Garlic Bun. I choose this as every time I turned around in the dinning room there seem to be another container of tomatoes. Even after making the pasta we still have 2 more containers of cocktail tomatoes and 2 regular tomatoes.

Off to do some crocheting and hopefully relax a little before bed. Have a wonderful night everyone.

[coupon girl]

angela nice deal on the free kiddies play house and playpen -awesome
did 3 loads today just hanging the last one now ,just ordered from joes fresh as its free shipping spent 15.95 got 2 pairs of mens socks ,sleeper for Sebastian cost 5.20 after I applied a 25% off code and leggings for Ashlyn 6.00 -wanted to buy the baby to be a sleeper but will wait til she is here you never know how small or big they may be
-daughter is here but Sebastian is with his dad overnight so we are just sitting out on the back patio -chillin and talking (mom and daughter

[lilo0003]

Congrats Natalka.
Busy day today. Chilling on the deck now with Dh and a glass of wine
helped a family member with a garage sale today and picked up a few things I needed include a like new pair of joe fresh leggings. Having lost weight means I have none that fit.
I also used the chocolate milk coupon and the syrup one and bought DS2 his favourite cereal.
Hubby made money by selling some stuff today so not a bad day.

[lizzie bargain]

Busy day today-took DD shopping for school stuff- an umbrella and raincoat seem like necessities for attending school in Vancouver-then we went out for lunch and to my great nieces 3rd birthday party and had pizza there for dinner-time to put my feet up. Nice to catch up with my nieces and nephews who are either married with little ones or about to be married-3 more weddings in the next year to attend.

[Newfiescreech]

[saundyl]

Hi all. May June and July have been so busy I fell of the face of the earth. Trying to catch up. Hope everyone is doing well and those that were sick are recovering.

June was not frugal as we ended up doing two trips south for FIL passing. He's in a better place and not suffering the confusion of alzheimers any longer. May we did a big shop for the long weekend for groceries down south as well as got our island and our deck set. Our housewarming party went well. The two trips in June we got groceries as well. I splurged and got a heated massage chair add on so I can quit hassling bf about doing my back all the time. Yes I do use it. I had to break down and get smaller clothes as I've gone from a 24 to an 18 since last August and things were beginning to be indecent or plain old frumpy. Including bathing suits. Embarrassingly enough the smallest one I had showed a lot more than I realized.

Renovations on the old house hit a stand still because of the trips. They are now almost finished ( 3 thresholds and some cabinet trim to replace now ) and we finally put it up for sale. 2 mortgages 2 sets of bills and renos make finances tight.

I still have my second job on top of my regular one but right now it doesn't feed my yarn or book habits and school clothes for the boys. We had to invest in a new vacuum cleaner and a steam cleaner purchase was less than the rental we could get locally

I plan to sell some of my bigger clothes. We had a garage sale the 1st weekend of july. We still have some items im going to sell on facebook left over. Mostof what was left though we took to the thrift store or just tossed. No shed space here as the new houses shed is smaller.

We did go see my mom for 10 days. Our youngest got to go to a camp here in the nwt where they fly them by float plane to a place called Brabant lodge for 10 days. Everything was free!. Our oldest got a job and didn't go to cadet camp this year.

We are doing a try to eat out of the pantry month for August as its financially tight. I took too many pork chops out tonight to defrost for sauce cooked chops. Low n slow. Bf isn't fond of the ones we got from our whole pig last fall as they are touugh. so we ground the uncooked ones up into ground pork for a pork style hamburger helper tomorrow using the left over sauce. I noticing already that we need mushroom and tomato soups, coffee, oil, and frozen veggies.

We got 2 plots in the community garden and a full greenhouse plot. I'm so looking forward to fresh potatoes, carrots, the peppers and cucumbers and spaghetti squash. We also planted radishes spinach and swiss chard. Tryinh cauliflower aswell. Loving the social aspect of it too.

My other splurge was a portable Ac for our room because I was not sleeping and was very short with everyone. It was Ac or bf was close to sending me to my mom permanently. Once the electrical on our central air is hooked up I will either rehome it to one of our moms or sell it if neither want it.

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[Natalka]

Thanks, everyone - it's been a lovely day!