June 2018 Frugal Chatter thread (congrats to new graduates)

[Angela273]

10pm the power just turned on at our house. 6hrs without power. At least now I know that our son still has school in the morning. The coin tents of our fridge and freezer are fine. It seems that only part of our city received hail. I do not see any holes punched in the leaves of my squash plants, etc. As indicated by my above post, some areas were hit hard, we were fortunate.

[Frugalbigmama]

TGIF!!! Finally! Now to get this work day out of thr way then time for fun

[sweet sparrow]

@Angela273 : Is it common to have that kind of weather there? Does that mean the local farming communities have had a lot of damage? I hope your insurance rates aren't too high for this sort of thing. Glad you and your family are safe!

I just checked put Gasbuddy.com to see what the prices were for the areas I will be in the next few days.

Home 128.6
Tonight 130.6
Tomorrow 123.6 (and then Costco should be about 4 cents cheaper so this is where I will top up on my way home!)

@Frugalbigmama : How do you see the price of gas for tomorrow?
I saw gas at 123.4 last night, so I wish I had waited an extra day. Oh well, you can never really predict these things.

I stopped checking the flyers lately as things got too busy with the children. I think I've realized that I shouldn't rely on anymore and bring my grocery bill down to half on certain things by taking a moment to check Friday flyers!

DH didn't come home until 9:45 PM last night. Both our children waited up for him, lying awake in bed. DD1 was horrible this morning and super tired as a result.

[SassyAshley]

Gas here was $1.31 when I came home last night just after 9 pm and this morning driving to work it was $1.35. With that being said the Station that was at $1.35 is notorious for marking up gas in the morning for the commute and then lowering it later in the day. It must work for them as it is always insane there in the morning and people are still buying. I normally go in after work but did boycott them for awhile when they stopped allowing Fleet Cards and Speed Pass (I heard even though not listed on the sign debit & credit wasn't working at the pumps either but never tested as I use Speed Pass) at the pump and would go to the one around the corner. No joke at this gas station I have literally at times stood there for over 15 minutes waiting to pay if you have to go inside where is the one around the corner had restrictions on paying at the pump.

I have seen people talking about Esso's switch to PCO points. I stopped at Esso on my way home last night and did not notice any signage and the pump did not say anything about PCO Points. Did not really matter to me as I have Esso Extra which I was using but if PCO is out this surprises me as they literally just became an Esso last week, prior to that they were an Ultramar.

[Frugalbigmama]

DS and I were looking for a top for him to wear and so many are so small for him so open email to Abercrombie & Fitch Summer Clearance up to 50% off plus 20% off wub 3 or more items.
So for $90 and change I got:

5 t-shirts for the youngest
1 to for me
2 long sleeve for oldest for Christmas!!! (one was reg $75 on for $16 then 20% off!!))

Happy with my little haul

[Frugalbigmama]

@Angela273: Is it common to have that kind of weather there? Does that mean the local farming communities have had a lot of damage? I hope your insurance rates aren't too high for this sort of thing. Glad you and your family are safe!

@Frugalbigmama: How do you see the price of gas for tomorrow?
I saw gas at 123.4 last night, so I wish I had waited an extra day. Oh well, you can never really predict these things.

I stopped checking the flyers lately as things got too busy with the children. I think I've realized that I shouldn't rely on anymore and bring my grocery bill down to half on certain things by taking a moment to check Friday flyers!

DH didn't come home until 9:45 PM last night. Both our children waited up for him, lying awake in bed. DD1 was horrible this morning and super tired as a result.

That is just the price in that area for where I will be. It doesn't really change daily here. Usually Tuesday is the day it changes if at all.

[Angela273]

@sweet sparrow Nasty storms are fairly common, but not typically with this amount and size of hail. I think this is the first serious tornado alert that we have received since we moved here years ago. The “Tornado Hunters” we’re streaming live from East of town...which is how I got some of the updates while camping out with the kids. A common home insurance deductible is $1,000 if they are covered. Yes, some farms will have been hit hard.

A friend lives on an acreage less than 20min away and he posted pictures of his place last night. His above ground Pool was destroyed, the small deck and stair attached on one sode of his mobile home was ripped off, any plants in his yard were destroyed, pleanty of holes in the siding on his shed, etc.

Someone elsr posted looking for recommendations to get repairs done quickly. They need to replace siding, roofing, windows, and doors.

[coupon girl]

hung 2 loads out today as I will be busy on weekend (not home much)

hubby has gone for his crown ,so we will see what that bill will be
I am skipping groceries as I have enough free fruit/veggies from shoppers gift bag I got and the fruit I bought with my points,tonight I will get a pizza pizza for hubby and I

on sat we are going to Toronto to babysit Sebastian ,then sunday is father's day early supper around 2.30 -3.00 I am bringing cupcakes ,daughter is bringing the drinks we are having baked potatoes ,chicken breast and fresh corn on the cob and it is suppose to me in the 40's with the humidex -wow

[greentires4me]

I spent $10.20 at Walmart I got donuts crunchy ones with Carmel sauce on top it’s creme filled, watmelon juice by mintue maid, 2x 750ml chocolate milk, a package of brown sugar.


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[Shwa Girl]

I'm liking this thread. Everyone is so helpful to each other. Very pleasant thread.

Don't know if this is a brag or a frugal chatter thingy:
We wanted a flight and saw some one day deals. The only trouble is that to get vacation time, it has to be approved. Well, wouldn't you know it , got approval after the flash sale deals.

But someone on here talked about Google travel. Google told us about a flight that was cheaper than the flash sale. Direct flight. Both ways. Going out on one airline. And coming back on another airline.

Thanks to all who post great frugal tips and tricks.
Thanks to the SC who told me about Google travel

[Ciel]

Last night, I got celery at Walmart to have during the forecasted hot weekend and found at Longos two discounted loaves of Stonemill bread for 99 cents each (their best before date is today) so that made up for no clearance crostini find and I also got bananas on sale. Stopped into Value Village to see if there was a summer top or shirt I could use my $2 off coupon wus $5 or more. Found a satin short sleeve top and the coupon came off the shirt price ($5.99)before taxes. $4.50 later, I owned the shirt! Happy find and it was laundered last night. Made a small salad for my lunch today and toasted 4 slices of the cranberry and pumpkin seed bread (ate the bread on my morning walk-seemed hungry despite breakfast)

Spent most of morning walking across Hamilton Mountain and found 16 containers ($1.60), a dime, a penny (found in a cart carrel when I returned a Jysk cart-12 more pennies are needed for my roll) and 1 McCafe sticker. Yes, I stepped into Rexall and bought that sale pop 6pk (I have three bottles left for the weekend). Got my college e-mail situation resolved (platform change over a year ago) and good thing as the computer access is now restricted to those with a college id as students or staff (cannot use the computer ID for general access anymore). The computer area has new tables and better chairs and the library desk has been moved. Three other college offices have moved to i-Wing: Continuing Education (formerly in J-wing), ONE Card and Parking offices (formerly in C-wing near the former bookstore location).

I have a sunburn on my face and arms (will see what dairy product in the fridge might be available to help skin slough off the upper layer). Got plenty of fresh air, sprinkler time (found a can between two sprinklers so I got wet on top and bottom but Ms. Sunshine dried me off quickly), and sunshine (glad I had water and sunglasses with me). Tonight's plan is to wash and chop the celery into sticks for snacking, smoothies or salads and cook my lingering potatoes as they've been in the crisper for three weeks and I need the bin space. Cilantro probably has to go into the green cart tonight.

I did find a library keytag and popped it into the book drop slot today. So glad I had an Internet access option as the public library system had a staff day closure. Also managed to read today's papers (two dailies) at the college library before closing. Then I noticed my watch (two weeks old) had stopped before 3:30pm. The real time was closer to 4:00 pm. Will have to see if sibling has a replacement battery, but last time the replacement battery only lasted about two months before it lost time. Almost want to cry that I had recycled the other watchface as my local Michael's store no longer carries it. I have a watchstrap tattoo on my left forearm from today's sun exposure so I want the watch back in use soon.

The new washing machine comes tomorrow! Looking forward to machine spin action!

[Ciel]

My Twitter feed has a photo of the near tornado in Estevan:
https://twitter.com/DSwitzy/status/1007631563423670272
@Angela273 -how brave you had to be with the children during the storm watch! I bet the old phone was of interest to the children! That snowplow photo is something else-it speaks to the power of big hail!

[Ciel]

When I was near home, I heard three cars squealing rubber tires by the fire hall. 3 Mustang hatchbacks circa late 80s with new bodywork/paint (must be kit cars as two had glossy colours?) decided to own the deserted main street by drag racing. Sigh. Noticed that I had not seen a police cruiser on the main street at all-usually there is one every 15min on Friday and Saturday nights from about 9pm onwards.

Sleep was elusive during the night (caffeine does that) but my arms were not the main issue. Nonetheless I woke up at 4am, jotted a list and sort of dozed off briefly. Awake around 6 am and tried to stay in bed for 45min then it was time for morning routine and chia/supergrain toast with sliced banana and peanut butter with a grape soda.

Handwashed some laundry and put it outside where a watery and overcast sky lurked. No rain thus fair but just wait, it's coming!

Tried to get online at TSN and I'd need to prove I'm a Cogeco user. No. CTV online-forgot it's a Bell entity now-I'd need a MyBell id and sibling is the one with online access to the phone account (but it's in Dad's name for phone service). Well, I'll make do with Twitter updates online and try the CTV Toronto station signal for an afternoon game or find something else to do.
To all of you in the Little Italy area in Toronto this weekend, have fun at CHIN Picnic! There are many restaurants offering World Cup viewing too for food and drink purchases.

Forgot to mention that I stopped at Talize yesterday afternoon just to see if there were clothes that might draw me in on Monday morning. No such luck. I also checked all the dark purple t-shirts in men's and women's sections-I'd like to know if Hamilton has last fall's Shoppers Optimum shirts on the racks in a secondhand store somewhere. The Value Village in Ancaster does not have them (good quality cotton).

[Ciel]

Found a quarter on the road shortly after I left the college around 9pm-that was a fun find!
Weekend plans are to do evening walks when sun is not as strong and keep close to home the rest of the time. Will dab some coconut/almond milk on the arms for a few minutes as I don't have milk/yogurt on hand. Might try using thawed mango chunks as a scrub tonight on my face and arms.

Will cook a bag of pasta to mix with three vegetables, chili pepper flakes and oil. I do not like the aroma of the 99cent dressings I purchased but won't waste them. At least I know now! There are some leftover Kraft salad dressing bottles with about 4-5 tablespoons left in each container. They are sibling's and he might not like me to finish off the remaining bottles (as I did with the Zesty Italian).

[Ciel]

I know that the Fortinos garden centres opened at the end of April but in case they or other Loblaw banner stores follow last year's closing schedule of prior to July 1, you might want to check for plastic pots or cells that you can return to the garden centres for recycling. Lowes also takes back pots. It'd be a pity to miss the opportunity to recycle the containers you no longer need as you transplant flowers and herbs and vegetables to your containers or beds.