August (already) 2017 Frugal Chatter thread

[Ciel]

@Angela273 -wow, great score on apples! Does the lady like apple crisp? I'd suggest making one for her as a thank you for the apples to show appreciation, as I believe adults enjoy treats and gifts just like children do. Like your idea about prepped and frozen apples. I have not frozen apples but they tend to have a high sugar content so they probably will do fine in the freezer.

Usually Mom's go-to method of dealing with lots of sour to less sweet apples is to make compote and add cinnamon or another spice at the end. Could be handy way to have a chunky applesauce without need of a sieve or strainer for future coffee cakes or just applesauce.

Yesterday, the plush lawn got cut (while the sky threatened rain, there was no rain). In the evening, I went to Shoppers to buy 8 more cans of the Clover Leaf flavoured tuna (sale ends on Friday) and a pop. One can of tuna can have 18g of protein and emptied over a big bowl of torn Boston lettuce, it makes for a fast and tasty meal! No add-ins required! Did a second walk at night for a lottery ticket-no win (the CNE quest for the weekend budget continues).

Read in the Toronto Star that the unionizing drive failed at the Eaton Centre Uniqlo store. Very unusual for retail workers to have an hour-long lunch and 1/2h unpaid break. No wonder 40% of the workers wanted a union (as the break would have been paid time) as 1.5h of their 9.5h regular shift is not paid.

[Ciel]

Sunny morning-time to go for a long walk. Later, I will use up the remaining eggs to make a chiffon cake with spices and then make a batch of smoothies for tomorrow.
Given two chilly nights in a row, the discounted hot chocolate mixes with marshmallows have provided me with some lovely am starts to the days.

A letter to the editor in the Toronto Star pointed out several buildings on the CNE grounds are closed and compared the Ex to a mall experience than a daylong fun event. Has anyone in the GTA gone to the Ex yet and noticed a similar feeling? The Ontario Place bit is one future aspect I expect to return with free admission to the Ex. Most people like strolling around OP at night. How popular is the CNE sign for photos at the west end of the grounds?

[avrose]

@Angela273 I had tons of crabapples last year, it took me days to peel and core them all, but I threw them in the freezer and it was great having them on hand for pies and crisp!

Today we are going to see Guns 'N' Roses, can't wait!! They had a special anniversary one day only deal a while back so our 2 tickets in a decent spot were still under $100 after all the fees. Too bad the venue charges $4 for a bottle of water! Oh well, we budgeted well so we could get drinks and a t shirt or 2.

I think dinner today will be chicken nuggets from Burger King, they have the 10 piece on for $1.99 and I pass it on the way home from work.

Have a great day all!

[Angela273]

I earned another $20 yesterday from selling garden produce. I'm now up to a grand total of $97 so far this summer. I even have a wait list for my red rhubarb.

I had a little fun this morning looking through the offers on CO51, Caddle, PC Plus, and coupon. Our son was helping me. I have a good match up on Ziploc bags - $1 wub2 CO51, - $2 coupon, - 600pts wub$4. I'll look through the flyers when they arrive.

[coupon girl]

well up early and off to the mall for 10.00 a.m I returned a few items at old navy and gap =about 45.00 back on my credit card,then spotted a few clearance deals in old navy for the girls -top for Ashlyn 2.99 dress for baby to be cara 3.99 and socks for Sebastian 1.60 on sale ,then got a splurge for me lush all natural tinted lipgloss 10.99 well worth it as my lips are always dry and such a nice fun light colour
-hubby got 5.50 back in returns at the beer store -thanks to me picking up a few cans on my walk (thanks ceil for always posting)hubby cut the lawn -now we are just trying to relax as I babysit on Friday

[avoncallingu]

Note to anyone who uses coupons- August 31 is fast approaching - that's a big "expiry" date for a lot of coupons. But then you SCs already know that -Don't you??

[Angela273]

I ordered a $50 Amazon.ca gift card today. I just started using swagbucks again earlier in August after a long hiatus.

I am picking up these outside toys tomorrow morning. I was the first person to contact her. $25 for all of the toys in this picture.

Edit: I picked up a bottle to recycle, from the parking lot where we met up. I picked up the toys this morning and there is considerably more rust on them than I had anticipated. I'll show Dh tonight and see what we can do about it.

[Ciel]

@avoncallingu -good reminder. I noticed a Fleecy fabric softener coupon has an Aug.30 expiry-believe coupon came from the summer Walmart Live Better or the current fall issue.
The Rubbermaid LunchBlox $2 off coupon will be handy for SCers buying the square kits on sale at various stores (WM has a different price for the rectangular Blox kits).

I had posted how I thought a Darth Vader or R2D2 lunchkit seemed too flimsy to hold a lunch. Two nights ago, I realized a useful purpose for the themed bags: storage for the clearance Jelly Belly Star Wars themed treats that I saw at Eastgate Shoppers a couple of months ago. Imagine having a filled lunch container of jelly beans by the door for Halloween (if expiry dates are long enough on the candies).

[Ciel]

@Angela 273 -last night I was looking at the car cleaning hacks on one site and rust removal was suggested using cola on the affected rust spots, allowing it to sit awhile, then wiping off. I do put tarnished pennies in a tiny puddle of cola now and then-it might be worth trying on the toys.

Forgot to load new Sobeys and PC Plus offers. The big jugs of PC free detergent I purchased in March-last of the detergent from the fourth container was decanted on Monday night. PC Plus had a points offer of 1600pts wus $8 on PC detergent-worth using on a purchase of a bottle of their cold detergent to find out how scented it is.

Have to have another kick at cans today on a walk. The big weekend of fun events at the Ex started today.

[Ciel]

SCers in Niagara-I saw a tweet that our PM Trudeau will be in Niagara tomorrow. Not sure at which venue/event. Noticed Niagara has wine events and a Canada 150 signature event with free Matthew Good concert. Brace for traffic.

[Angela273]

Well that didn't take long. I already received my $50 Amazon.ca gc from Swagbucks and put it into my Amazon account. I don't know what or when we will order next, but it's nice to know that the money is waiting.

My summer daycare boy was picked up at lunch time today, it's his birthday.

My leg is causing me a lot of pain today. I also have a nasty migraine, which might be partly blamed on today's rain.

I put away one load of laundry and have a new load in the wash. We have some frugal fun planned for this weekend.

[SassyAshley]

Good Evening Everyone,
It has been a fun week, I head up to the great north for a day on Wednesday and the drive took a lot longer then normal going into town their was an accident on the by pass and I ended up sitting on the highway for about half an hour, I thought about turning around as many cars where but figured going through town wouldn't be any better. Then on the way home I got caught in construction again extending my drive by about half an hour.

Thursday and half of today I helped in my "home" location as one of the counter staff was off. Apparently today I looked like a computer hacker as I was using the staff member's computer plus I had the Mac and my laptop on the counter as Friday is website day so I had to post blogs and Facebook posts and each computer gave me different access as well I was asked to add photos to the blog post which are on the Mac where I edit them.

This afternoon I met with my leadership coach and he is always help but today he really gave me some ways to handle and look at things differently which I hope will help with my current situation. He also helped me with some ideas on how to handle and manage situations even when someone above me is trying to over take me and my ideas which seems to be happening quite a bit lately. We have one person who likes to come to meetings with great ideas but I feel like at times because he is a stronger personality and tries to move through his points quickly I cannot always keep up and run the whole idea through my head and calculate any issues so at times we have to back track once I can process and realize something will not work the way others hope it will.

Alright well dinner is finally ready, have a great night everyone

[SassyAshley]

It has been a pretty productive day around here today. Mom had to work so I had the house to myself.

The laundry is done, folded and put away.

Dishes are done, just need to empty the dishwasher

I also prepped a bunch of veggies we bought this week so now they are in the fridge ready to be eaten/cooked. I cleaned and chopped up 1 romaine lettuce, a cauliflower and a broccoli. We still have 1 more romaine and broccoli in the fridge that need to be cut up.

Tonight I am making a chicken stir fry with Zucchini, Mushrooms and Peppers with a homemade sauce which I will serve with Chinese noodles.

Well I cook dinner I will clean out the fridge and see what needs to be used up tomorrow.

Have a wonderful night everyone.

[lilo0003]

Back to work Monday so tomorrow I will prep my lunches for the week. I have a very long honey do list for DH as we want to use his time off wisely. Laundry was all line dried today. Score 80 jumbo freezies at RCSS for .88 cents.

[Angela273]

We had a busy day today. We had some family time at home, then Dh stayed home with our twins while I took our son out with me for a few hours. We picked more apples and donated some to our local food bank. I banged my shin pretty good while apple picking, skinned it and got a decent bruise. We brought some garden vegies to a grandma and donated some to the Salvation Army food bank. We wanted to do some shopping at Salvation Army and soon discovered a $1 sale, which they hadn't advertised on Facebook.

1 item for me, 1 rain coat for twin girl, 8 t-shirts for our big boy, 1 light jacket for our big boy, 1 cardboard book containing 5 puzzles = $11.50

No Frills $31.10 + 2,700pts - 75c in rebates

Sobeys $0.45 oop after a 99c coupon, rain check, buy 3 Kellogg's cereal get 4L milk free $5.19, and redeeming $40 in Air Miles.

Dh requested my baked cheese loaf for the Potluck BBQ that we attended for supper tonight.