December 2017 Frugal Chatter thread (last chance to party for Canada's 150th)

[SassyAshley]

Merry Christmas Everyone

[lilo0003]

Sassy and FBM I hope you ladies have safe travels. I know we all wanted a white Christmas but this is a little crazy. If we have this much snow here I can only imagine you guys in the north.
Awesome day here, the older teen cooks our meal so I am just on dish duty. My brother caller to report he has proposed to his partner so we are all pretty excited about that, I already call her my Sister in love so needless to say this is amazing.

[SassyAshley]

Thanks Lilo, I have to admit I left my Dad's around 10 pm and the drive home was not good. It normally takes me about 10 to 15 minutes to get home from Dad's but Christmas Eve it was closer to half an hour, never went above 60. Happy I did not stay as I found out from Bro's gf they stayed up till 2:30 am.

When all was said and done I did go over budget on Dad's gift but since I am in under budget on most I actually came in under budget over all.

I went to Costco Friday morning right at opening and got a lot of amazing in store deals for our day to day use. Spent more than I would have liked but am pretty happy with my purchases as we are now stocked up on a number of things we will not need to purchase for some time.

I have to admit I am super happy Christmas is over, I know feel I can finally relax. Saturday I had a sinus migraine which threw off all my holiday prep plans.

Today has been pretty productive, laundry is almost done just waiting for the dryer to finish, a few dishes left over from last night have been done, all Christmas gifts have been opened and packaging discarded. Just have a few gifts to find a home for and then need to wash the new kitchen items, this may or may not happen today.

Off to relax for a bit, have a great day everyone.

[Frugalbigmama]

Hello everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful and safe holiday. Waking up today at the casino hotel. We enjoyed the pool yesterday and walking around the hotel snow free with the kids. Dinner at the restaurant and just getting ready to meet again for breakfast. We are here with my sister's family and Grandma too! I went out boxing day shopping yesterday before we left and got some great deals. Will post later.

[coupon girl]

listen to this ladies -I did no boxing day shopping see I had control as I did a lot of online shopping before xmas and black Friday also so proud of myself -I didn't even go into shoppers which I normally would do
-having company today and trying to clean and curl my hair and wash the dishes which is hard to do with a toddler (I am not complaining thou love seeing him ) because my dear daughter wasn't feeling well this morning so told her to stay in bed and we would watch Sebastian for 6.15 til 9.00 she is getting a cold virus from Sebastian
-anyway bye for now gotta go clean -oh and for xmas my son & his family gave us all gift cards hubby just went out to get 45.00 in free esso gas (nice ) plus a lovely ornament with the 3 grandkids names on it ,my daughter gave us a lovely mink like indigo throw (navy blue and a gift card to a favourite restaurant on locke street)so love all my gifts for sure

[SassyAshley]

Did not get as much done today, today was more of a blah day for me.

Made a double batch of Banana Muffins first thing this morning to use up some old bananas we had.

Been slowly working on my own scarf now that everyone else has theirs.

We have some rice in the fridge we need to use up and I feel like I have eaten too much beef lately so will do something with Chicken just not sure what yet.

Hope everyone has a wonderful evening

[Ciel]

I rarely drink, but when I have my one drink it is vodka. I’m only allowed one because of the blood thinner that I have been taking for the last 10yrs. I never loved to drink, so I don’t really miss it. Dh enjoys vodka too, so it will get used eventually. I already put it in the freezer.

You are in line with actress/entrepreneur Elizabeth Hurley-she went to a nutritionist to ask which drink has the fewest calories as she was keen to manage calories as she was getting older and wiser. Vodka is the drink with the least calories. I have to find a way in which I can like it-so far, it has been in Haagen-Daaz's Spirit flavoured ice creams.

[Ciel]

Feel bereft without Internet for 3 days so--time to report on some finds at Longos today-not much produce on the reduced produce rack but 8 apples for $1.49 was a win (some were chopped up with my last two Granny Smith apples to make a quick compote on the stovetop today). So was finding a handbasket of reduced price spices on the reduced grocery/bakery racks-including white sesame seeds ($0.94) and poppyseeds ($1.44). Then I saw unsweetened shredded coconut for about $3 something (200g)-got one package. I did not need sultana raisins but big bags are $3.94 on clearance too.
As three other grocery items earned me 50 bonus Thank You Rewards points each, I'm 25 pts away from a $10 redemption. While I should lean towards using the credit for other baking or grocery needs, my festive self decrees the credit must go towards a mini biscotti assortment this week. Just need to spend another $1.30 so my weekly spending total hits $25 (I'm $23 and change there so far) then I get the base 50 TYR points to push over the redemption sum.

I used my shopping cart to tote the Longos groceries and a few items from Walmart-some areas are not plowed but the city sidewalks were (allowing for some snow dump piles mid-sidewalk-I want Santa to upgrade my shopping cart to a bigger one with rugged rubber tires in the New Year).

Getting the shopping done was key as over the weekend, many grocery staples have run out. Mom and I were talking about Christmas dinner for Jan.7 and basically I do not want her to a large anything for a meal. Some cakes and tea will suit me-my plan is to make a couple of things and see what happens for side dishes (still wrangling some sense and order in my recipe binder-keep discovering recipes I wanted to try but forgot about).

My, winter has really spread her reach from coast to coast for Dec.25. Prairies seem back to usual cold winter temps (hard to believe the spring/summer temps recently experienced there) and the Maritimes have leaning telephone poles (45 degree angles per Nova Scotia videos shown on the Weather Network today). Glad to see that SCers are minding the weather while celebrating and travelling.

Library hours are reduced this week. Time to head home. See you all tomorrow! Keep warm.

[Angela273]

Well, we did our 4 day road trip to visit family and returned home last night. The road conditions were great, but it has been bitterly cold. Dh and I were hit with food poisoning from food yesterday and came down with the illness after we were home. I had guests at our house most of today. We received a sampling of home made Christmas baking. Our kids are all happy with their various gifts. My purse needed to be replaced a long time ago. I picked out a new leather purse and Dh bought it for me. This leather purse comes with a lifetime warrantee.

I made a $10 sale tonight.

[SassyAshley]

I must admit I have lost my ambition to do anything. I have spent most of the day on the couch binge watching marathons on TV.

Although I did manage to pay the bills and made sure I covered all the Christmas expenses and did end up coming in under budget which always makes me happy.

Not so frugal but something I am working on is enjoying the extras. I am always so worried about what might happen that I rarely spend things that are given to me whether it be cash or gift cards, I tend to tuck them away just in case and not spend them. My grandparents give us cash every year, I have not spent this money in over 5 years instead I tuck it away for an emergency so I trying to talk myself into being okay with spending what we were given this year as a treat to myself. I am trying to be more open to treating myself and seeing that I can save money and it does not always have to come at the expense of myself spending no money on myself.

Better see if I can find some ambition although it is not looking like it will happen. Have a wonderful day everyone.

[Ciel]

@SassyAshley -you do your body a favour by giving it a staycation/rest period. Random thinking question-would you like to do a trip with your Mom next year or look for a new place? Just to change things up this decade of your life before you plan on finding a life partner (and those commitments make it harder to just say yes without consulting the other person).

In line with celebrating Canada 150, here are two links to enjoy:
Review Canada's big year on Twitter: https://twitter.com/canada150th

Learn about where much of Canada's food comes from: https://www.ricardocuisine.com/we-are-the-best/

For those SCers exploring culinary career options for themselves or family members, I highly recommend the book Apron Strings by Jan Wong. Her younger son got his kitchen experience with an older family member and also by working in restaurants. He had not gone to culinary school though that was being considered at the time that this trip to three lands was offered to him.

[saundyl]

@saundyl -so glad you are exploring what to do to help your connective tissue heal. Look for Robert Schleip books at your library (search for fascia or fascial in the catalogue-I've yet to come across a book specific for healing from injuries as most exercises assume reader is able to do a variety of exercises) or find clips of him on Youtube as he is researching fascia and following other researchers in learning how to help connective tissue heal. You also might enjoy watching a physiotherapist work German soccer players in clinic when they have to stretch out their fascia due to injuries (I have to find the link for you later-such fast stretching).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUj0XE0O6Fk&nohtml5=1

Frank Lipman's book Spent has a shoulder exercise too. It might be online: https://www.bewell.com/blog/a-video-...-nancy-parker/

It's also helpful that you have a new mattress too. Mom just got her new set in and said she felt better in two ways-she wishes she got the set much earlier!

Thank you so much ill definitely be looking him up@!

Sent from my ASUS_Z01BDC using Tapatalk

[lilo0003]

@SassyAshley I just spent the gift card I received last Christmas from work today. I have lost weight and wanted some new blouses so I went to the Bay. I have advised my DH that with this years work gift card from Christmas and the cards from my work anniversary I am buying blundstone boots. My goal this year to to use up all the gift cards we have. And I am almost there. @Ciel I will look for the book for my son. He is devouring the one cookbook we bought him.
We did our big family Christmas yesterday and my extra busyness was my mom sister came home for Christmas and it was a surprise only DH and I knew, so it was as a little crazy getting ready as she lives in a tropical climate so I had to buy some warm clothes. I totally lucked out when I accidentally went to value village on th 50% off day. I already had her winter coat here from the last time she came home in the winter. So I am enjoying my quiet sit by the fire now. DH and DS2 have gone to see Dr. Who.

[Angela273]

I made a $20 sale tonight within an hour of posting the item.

Today is dh’s Birthday. He is at the new Star Wars movie with our son, who got another new lightsaber for Christmas.

I made 4 cups of cheese curds out of milk that was turning sour over the holidays.

I took all 3 of my kids to Sobeys and they each ate a free banana while we shopped. I spent $20.xx and the receipt says I saved 54%. I also submitted the receipt to CO51 for $3.25 back and earned 17AM. I used $10.99 in coupons and got a free 4L jug of milk, today was the last day for the milk promo.
FPC salad kit + 25c CO51 = money maker
$2.69 Mann’s sugar snap peas - $2 coup = $0.69
2x $4.99 Jiff - $1 coup - $1.50 rebate + 6AM (personal bonus AM offer) + free $4.66 jug of milk wub 4 specified items, so I purchased eggs and yogurt cups too.

[barbis9]

I made a $20 sale tonight within an hour of posting the item.

Today is dh’s Birthday. He is at the new Star Wars movie with our son, who got another new lightsaber for Christmas.

I made 4 cups of cheese curds out of milk that was turning sour over the holidays.

I took all 3 of my kids to Sobeys and they each ate a free banana while we shopped. I spent $20.xx and the receipt says I saved 54%. I also submitted the receipt to CO51 for $3.25 back and earned 17AM. I used $10.99 in coupons and got a free 4L jug of milk, today was the last day for the milk promo.
FPC salad kit + 25c CO51 = money maker
$2.69 Mann’s sugar snap peas - $2 coup = $0.69
2x $4.99 Jiff - $1 coup - $1.50 rebate + 6AM (personal bonus AM offer) + free $4.66 jug of milk wub 4 specified items, so I purchased eggs and yogurt cups too.

What did dh and your son think of the Star Wars movie?