April 2020 Frugal Chatter Thread

[Arjon]

I use to love grocery shopping with a passion ,as I guess we all did here .

It would be an exaggeration for me to say I love grocery shopping with a passion. IMO, it's a game of the kind I've enjoyed for many years, where there are many viable ways to proceed, with no single one being universally best, and ongoing rather than having a final goal or ending. The game is still endless, but it's much more restricted now, with pretty different rules, the main one being to hold myself back so that I shop far less often and only visit one store when I do go. What fun is that?

[Giseledta]

Sassy- shopping sets off my anxiety as well. i need to do a shop today. i will wait till youngest is up.. and ask if she is up to taking me .

shopping is .. difficult right now. shelves are .. bare. people look at you if you have items .. do you have to much.. are you horading.. do you have to little.. why are you going out... ugh.

[Angela273]

I’m still trying to adjust my shopping habits further during this time. I’m trying to only get groceries once a week and limit it to one store of at all possible. I’m disappointed with the Sobeys flyer. I’ll probably just pm at NF. Might be easier to do if I bring the paper flyer to hand over and not get back.

NF had most of what I needed in stock. I went shopping there last week and a lot had changed since then. They had emptied their entire coupon racks. Tape on the floor was done differently at the tills, big plexiglass things are the tills, and no wipes to use on your cart (I brought my own). Their bananas were all ripe, so the entire display was $0.57/lb, plus there was still some on the discount rack. I got both. Signs for limits of 2 on eggs and milk. I bought two types of milk and was happy to bring home 3 jugs of milk. We drink 5x 4L milk a week. No pork loins in stock, but they had cheese slices. I submitted a ticket for missing points. I used $20 in points and a $2 coupon that I had brought with me.

edit: I brought my own bags, as usual, but was told to keep them off the conveyor belt while filling them. I found out that our NF location is now providing their regular plastic bags for free. I find this interesting as they still don’t provide wipes to clean the carts and we use coins to unlock the carts.

[Frugalbigmama]

Made my bed and wiped down all surfaces. I am keeping up on making sure the bedroom is spotless. I will wash the bed sheets tomorrow morning. I don't feel like doing laundry today.r
We are planning on walking tonight after we are both done work.

[Giseledta]

Just fb chatted with one of my daycare lovies!! bonus points for not crying!
mom made a comment on how much food her child eats... and how her grocery budgt went up. lmao. i went yep... she eats well

[Ciel]

It would be an exaggeration for me to say I love grocery shopping with a passion. IMO, it's a game of the kind I've enjoyed for many years, where there are many viable ways to proceed, with no single one being universally best, and ongoing rather than having a final goal or ending. The game is still endless, but it's much more restricted now, with pretty different rules, the main one being to hold myself back so that I shop far less often and only visit one store when I do go. What fun is that?

Change which store you visit each week. Fun and eye-opening in terms of what's available, what's not, etc.

[Ciel]

The sunshine is definitely pushing spring cleaning buttons. I was daydreaming of different ways to spend the upcoming special credit (I'll make the list to see how many $ I am over the real deal) but reality kicked and I am thinking health needs/online course or just food/clothing.

Not planning to drop $40 tomorrow at Shoppers (no flyer as TODAY is the last day) to earn 10000 PC Optimum points. That was the best offer in today's list.

Thought to look at Walmart.ca-the Miele Blizzard vac is now showing at $698 and change, much better than the original $849 or whatever.

SCers in need of Keurig coffee machines-Walmart has about 5 models showing *mostly single serve* ranging in price from $78.xx to $148.** Click on the Walmart Home Book flyer to see which ones.

[Arjon]

Change which store you visit each week. Fun and eye-opening in terms of what's available, what's not, etc.

Thanks. IDK it that will help much, but it certainly won't hurt.

Fwiw, I'm aiming to shop less than once a week though. I don't have a set number of days in between, but e.g., I wasn't in a store of any kind for 11 days before I went earlier this week.

[coupon girl]

Wow what an experience shopping I haven't been out since march 10 when I went in sobeys .First we went to pick up groceries but it went from $115 down to $80 as they didn't have eggs, luncheon meat etc .So I decided to go into fortinos ,soo stressfull the cashier I started to go to looked like her nose was a tiny bit red and she was wiping her nose ,nope I picked another lane spent 120.00 but I don't care ,in fact you couldn't go down 2 isle as the rep was stocking the shelves .

Then we proceed to go home after the express order was put in our trunk and our car wouldn't start ,called son as he was coming home from work -I sat in the back with my groceries in the trunk .Hubby waited for caa ,40 minutes wait ,and the guy boosted and tightened a cable .In the meantime my hubby called son as he goes by that way on his way home from work ,so he picked me up with the groceries and I sat in the back ,I stayed my distance from him.


Then my dear daughter called and said "mom you defeated the purpose of express by going in the store I know but they didn't have eggs etc and she said she cares about me and I should have made do without .Pay for a local fruit and veggie service she said .Oh life was not easy today for me .

At least I am set for more than a week .

[cath007]

Good earlier evening everyone!!!! Not much going on I have a sore troat grrr

We have 37 case of positive covid -19 in our small city that is pretty scaring ...


Grocery will be minimal this week and father will go the morning with senior hour at maxi 7-8 am

Temperature is rain it is really a dull day,will watch tv

enjoy your evening everyone

not sure if it is the time to order some coupons per e-mail with compagnies due to the virus??? I have zero coupons for when the store will restart to take them....that will be long...

[Giseledta]

did the groceries. we are set for a serious amount of time.
groceries were.. expensive. stress shopping is so not my thing.

ok. home. supper done. tomorrow i need to fill the propane tank. that should be local .

home, and no plan on going anywere for a long time.

[Angela273]

I had ds do math on the computer in order to earn access to some of my baking cook books. He loved the kid one that he hadn’t seen for a while. He had to read the recipes to figure out if we could make them. He put little blue sticky notes on the pages. Several of the recipes are pretty easy and we have all of the ingredients for most of them. Plan on doing some tomorrow.

Possibilities include peanut butter cookies, haystack cookies, various oatmeal cookies, crunch or M&M cookies, oatmeal cherry squares, the list goes on.

[Ciel]

I loved my Scholastic cookie book when I was in second grade, so I can imagine your DS' excitement at picking one recipe to bake, @Angela273 !

[Ciel]

The lump sum GST amount for April 9 equals what I get over the 2019-2020 tax credit year. Not enough for eyeglass frames (the store might open May 1) nor an online course, but maybe shoes or one splurge and some computer accessories *not a mobile printer that I was eyeing over at the Staples site*. Still have time to make a realistic spend list.

Easter decoration/crafts from Denise Wild's appearance yesterday on CHCH Morning Live: https://twitter.com/morninglive/stat...89919608078342

Speaking of Easter, has anyone located the Aero Easter single chocolate figures (i.e. sheep) in stores?

[Angela273]

I loved my Scholastic cookie book when I was in second grade, so I can imagine your DS' excitement at picking one recipe to bake, @Angela273 !

He has picked out several recipes.