July 2018 Frugal Chatter thread (2nd half of 2018 and summer!)

[Angela273]

Yesterday was a Street Fair and sale downtown. We saved money by eating at home and bringing water bottles with us. It was very hot outside and became quite windy as the day went on. The kids jumped in the free bouncy castles. We paid $5 and stood in a long line for our some to ride the bumper cars. At Salvation Army we spent $7 on two blankets twin sized blankets for our twins new beds. The other second hand store in town had a 50% off everything sale. I spent $3.75 and bought a t-shirt for our son, two-piece fuzzy minion pjs for twin girl, and another swim tank top for myself.

I found a quarter and a nickle inside my reclining chair. I have no idea how long those were hiding there.

Twin boy’s toddler bed was finally delivered for $25. We bought a 4’ long home made wooden storage bench for our twins’ room for $50. We had to do some repairs and clean it. The top of the bench has two sides. They are very heavy and one managed to come down and hit me in the head. The spot on my head bruised, and my foot is bruised from crib boards landing on it earlier in the week. I wasn’t even touching the bench at the time. Dh plans on going to Home Hardware today to buy a safety hinge thing to slow down the lid when closing. If this doesn’t fix it the way we want, then I’ll post it for sale for about $70 with an explanation of what we did to improve the storage bench. I used my new small shop vac to help me clean it out. It worked well. I’m happy with the purchase.

I am hoping to use my new shopvac today to clean clean out my van. Dh and I agreed on a few bigger items that we could sell, that are currently in our garage.

Today and tomorrow are the coolest days in the forecast, high of around 24. I have a roast thawing for supper tonight or tomorrow. I’ll need to go grocery shopping today because we are nearly out of milk, bread, etc. The second load of laundry is nearly done and I’ll probably do one or two more.

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
Up early again which feels great, although I think I am so used to sleeping in that I keep feeling like it is later in the day and feeling rushed until I look at the clock.

I am on the last load for my bedding and will then move on to Mom's.

I have chopped up the 2 roasts I bought yesterday as they were the large cryovac ones. I got 10 bags of beef strip which are about 1/2 a cup per bag. I kept the middle of each roast as a roast, I trimmed down a little of the fat as the cap was a bit much. I made them larger as I am always disappointed when we cook a roast and there are no leftovers. I admit I usually cook the roast for the leftovers.

I left some strips out and currently have a Beef and Veggie Stir Fry in the Instant Pot. I make one with a sauce that I usually let simmer on the stove for 20 or so minutes and with the heat that was not happening. So I decided to try it in the Instant Pot. Once it is done I will wash the Instant Pot and make rice. I was able to use up a number of veggies in the fridge, I used Mushrooms, Peppers, Bok Choy & Snow Peas. Also just realized we are almost out of beef broth so I used mushroom instead, we will see what Mom thinks.

I need to start using the Instant Pot more, it got moved down stairs when we were trying to clean up the dinning room. It was supposed to be a temporary move but it never came back up so I dug it out today and will see if I can find somewhere upstairs to keep it. Also need to find a home for the Toaster Over, although this one is more than a Toaster Oven. I took this from Nanny's House well she was in the hospital and I did not realize until after I took it and she told me she was happy I did as she had spent $450 and was hoping someone in the family would take it. It is also an oven as it has Bake, Broil and Convection Bake which is why I think it cost so much, plus it is Cusine Art.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day.

[Frugalbigmama]

HI all. Productive day so far. Kitchen is spotless. Went grocery shopping for healthy items only. Have chicken breasts cut in chunks marianating in fridge for dinner. Will pack up food for work tomorrow when cleaning up from dinner. Found my cavendish fry coupons so going to Foodbasics so stock the kids up for the next year I hope. Cheaper and less work then buying 10lb bag of real potatoes lately. Anyone else notice getting a bag for under $2 is long and far between lately?

[Frugalbigmama]

I absolutely love summer for fresh veggies/ fruit. I bought tomatoes, avocados, cucumbers, peppers, romaine, zucchini, broccoli, mushrooms, fresh garlic, lemon, blueberries etc. Can't wait to make meal plan for the week.

[coupon girl]

yes potatoes are never 2.00 or less anymore usually 4.99 sometimes 3.99-i noticed
hung a load out -another one is in wash

-may go to local pool as it is free under the heat advisory -the training smaller pool is 94 degrees

[Arjon]

Found my cavendish fry coupons so going to Foodbasics so stock the kids up for the next year I hope. Cheaper and less work then buying 10lb bag of real potatoes lately. Anyone else notice getting a bag for under $2 is long and far between lately?

There was also a period last summer when there were few if any ads for $2 bags of potatoes.

[SassyAshley]

Totally feeling the potato crunch here, we are down to our last bag that I was able to get under $2, I keep hoping next week is the week but so far no good sales.

[Angela273]

I agree that potatoes haven’t been going on sale very much. We live in SK, so our grocery prices are always higher. We eat a lot more pasta than we do potatoes. My kids mostly only like potatoes when they are French fries. I have red potatoes growing in the garden. It won’t be long before I can start raiding some baby potatoes from the plants and leave the plants to grow some more. Fresh baby potatoes are great with butter and dill.

[Giseledta]

I have noticed several items are increasing in prices.
Today I noticed shampoo... I am astounded at how prices are going up . Potatoes.. insane.. and smaller bags.

I did manage to get 5.00 back from co 51 today . armstrong cheese strings on sale for 3.99 at shoppers. got 1.00 back per pkg. 3 pkgs. good for all teh summer picnics with the kids. and 1.00 off pantene shampoo and condidtioner. also had a coupon for 3000 pts if I bought both shampoo and conditioner.

went to art in the barn with hubby. https://www.artinthebarndorchester.com/find-us.html

leftovers for supper. I am spending a bit of time today working on stuff I need to do this week. we have heat tomorrow... but cooler temps later in the week.

[SassyAshley]

Made a Cucumber Dill Salad, we thought we only had 2 cucumbers so we grabbed 2 more, turned out we had 4 so needed to use those up. Although I did only use 2 in the salad as Mom does not tend to eat it even though she likes it. If does eat some this time I can always make more during the week.

Also have 5 lunches/dinner of Beef Stir Fry in the fridge ready to go.

Still some other veggies to be used up but will see might leave those for Mom to tackle on Tuesday when she is off.

My bedding is done just waiting on Mom's now.

Think I will go on Pinterest to do some meal planning. Trying to come up with some new dinner ideas. We have been doing a fair amount of take out lately but I have to be honest I think that was more on me as I can really see how mentally I was not in a good place and really affecting all areas of my life. I find now without the pressure of trying to put in hours outside of work hours I do not mind making dinner. With that being said, I prefer to have a bit of a plan so I am not sitting here at 5 pm going what oh what should we have. For the most part I am home before Mom so dinner falls on me most nights so I want a plan.

[Frugalbigmama]

Re: potatoes. Good I'm glad I am not alone regarding potatoe prices. Will just buy and use for mashed and baked potatoes. I just bought 9 bags of French fries and 2 Vim bathroom cleaners for $5.55. I try and clean naturally but sometimes need a new cleaner and they were marked 50% off and I had $1.50 coupons. But they rang in wrg so got one for free and she took both coupons off I'm guessing! She kept receipt for her records. Will stop at FB and buy more fries tomorrow, hopefully they restock or I will have to get crinkle cut which we don't prefer. Still a deal!

$10 pampers coupons from RCSS. I grabbed a bunch this morning for the ones that would like some. Pm me address and I will mail to you right away

[coupon girl]

ahhh I feel so refreshed in this heat just got back from a free swim (due to our heat advisory) 2-3.30 I mostly was in the hot pool 95 degrees as its great for the bones and arthritis

-supper just a turkey deli meat sandwich for me and a tiny bit of kraft dinner as hubby will have the rest of kraft dinner (I am not that fond of it)may have a chocolate ice cream cone tonight

[Frugalbigmama]

Mmmmm Dinner was good. Off to clean up the kitchen. Have a load of laundry in the washer. Will dry and put away and put a load of whites on next.

[Shwa Girl]

reading the discussion about rising prices with interest
also noticing some stores have half empty shelves for meat, dairy, refrigerated juice and milk
half empty shelves have been happening for about a month I think

last week, bought items to make lunches, only using points: mini potatoes, pasta, grape tomatoes, baby carrots

couple of weeks ago bought milk on sale, 2 L carton and paying about 1.xx out of pocket, after using $10 in points

will try to see how long we can keep this up - buying food with just points

[barbis9]

I popped my head outside the door around 9am and yikes that heat and humidity was rolling in like guests with no plans to leave. The air outside does move but indoors, it was hard to tell. Was happy to have a light rain in the late morning and more recently. I watered the flowers yesterday when I saw one kind of flower had flopped stalks suggesting maybe heat stress or lack of water to help plant play follow the sun.

This is the last weekend for the McDonald's Italian Pesto burger/meal combo! I had the meal combo (simply love that rosemary bun and all the toppings on the burger) for dinner yesterday after doing my $10 redemption shop at Longos (Haagen Daaz Spirit ice cream-Rum Apple Pie, Schneiders Red Hots (pork, as the all beef ones are not labelled Red Hots and rang up at $6.49!) with 85 cents out of pocket! All varieties of Haagen Daaz ice cream are on special for $4.99 at Longos in the current flyer! It's also Shrimp Fest weekend, if you love seafood.

Mom and I are treating today as a do-nothing day (beyond meals and dishwashing) due to the heat. Glad we have groceries and cold things at home-earlier this week, it was an Amazing Race to use dwindling supplies to make meals or snacks but the heat just made things very "hangry" in the family.

Mom may head out to the Home Outfitters sale today and I had her look at the flyer as she'd like spend her HBC points and find new pillows, once brother can make time to take her to the mall. I also nudged her to compile a grocery list-- nothing is more irritating than her returning from an outing saying she forgot to buy this thing or that food and needs another trip to the store.

I keep forgetting to check what the per lb cost is for a pork shoulder roast is for pulled pork. Since I have Coke at home and a jar of Longo's BBQ sauce (Peach and Ghost Pepper, which I find a tad too strong/hot to eat with bread), I long to put all three things into a slow cooker and make pulled pork.

It was fascinating to see in today's Toronto Star a Books article about books concerning middle age and women:
https://www.thestar.com/entertainmen...he-new-40.html

Hurrah for Downtown Abbey fans-the movie will be made this summer for next year's release:
https://www.thestar.com/entertainmen...bey-movie.html

did your mom get pillows? They have them on sale at the Bay and your mom can use the points there too.