April 2020 Frugal Chatter Thread

[coupon girl]

yess frugalbigmama -I put a banana from the freezer in my chocolate ripple icecream milkshake too -that way you get a fruit snuck in there (hubby and I love it)

Hubby and I walked for 30 minutes today ,notice a lot of people saying hi from their front porch ,people that never said peep before .

Don't forget to save your p.c offers for next week everyone

[Granger]

Forgot is was April. lol Remember I am slashing dates on the calendar like in prison over here to keep track.

April will be Frugal - we incurred debt with strike days and furnace replacement for March (LOC)
-we already paid off our LOC in full once this year when we received gift from Grandpa's house sale
-while I don't like using it my planner said not to worry so much when it is home investment and I am using home equity to pay and when I have a payment plan laid out (we had a huge discussion with her about waiting and saving for the roof versus doing immediately with LOC)
-The roof was $17,000 (had A LOT of work done including board replacement), it took a year and a half but it is paid in full now
-We have much less on there right now

April goals - I am going to do our own taxes this year, hoping for a return to put toward LOC
-April gets three biweekly pays (rather than two) so we will balance with a little extra for LOC for sure
-DH can't get back to work with the COVID-19 pandemic, so that will have to wait. When he does, then we will budget to repay whatever is left on LOC (or whatever else we incur, hopefully little to none)

[Granger]

Tiger King

I just loved it. Apparently there is going to be a second season about Carol (I think that is her name). Weird. Bizarre. Too few teeth, too much profanity, but couldn't stop watching.

I liked them theme and ending though. Overall it had a positive message.

[greentires4me]

I found you all you were hiding on me. Today I slept in until 11 am then I got up and went to shoppers drug mart and bought 2 cases of Pepsi throwback and thick hair elastics and amazon gift card so I can buy a coffee maker and coffee.


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[Angela273]

Ds is 7Yrs old. He made banana chocolate chip muffins for the first time. He was in charge and I was his helper. He read the recipe, pulled out the ingredients, tried to do the math for doubling the recipe, etc.

[johnb56789]

Ds is 7Yrs old. He made banana chocolate chip muffins for the first time. He was in charge and I was his helper. He read the recipe, pulled out the ingredients, tried to do the math for doubling the recipe, etc.

I just did some of my first baking today too. I have helped before, but never made anything myself. Today was chocolate chip cookies, just something simple. I think they came out decent, I made about 6 dozen and will bring them into work tomorrow for my coworkers. Next week will be peanut butter cookies as I have three jars of peanut butter that are just a little past the best before. So I wanna at least get one used up.

[Ciel]

April seems like a continuing case of Bad News March. This morning, a headline ran on the local morning show that the local buses will be limited to 10 passengers on the regular size buses and 15 on the articulated buses. Some routes are packed within the first two stops under normal schedules and routing but now the buses that all taxpayers pay for are limited to some riders? Not everyone has their bank, store, medical team, food bank etc in their immediate vicinity--I'm certain that riders with mobility issues feel further issues about access or lack thereof to buses. Pass the headache remedies, this is going to hurt.

The other thing I noticed on another morning show-talk about how people in Toronto should only shop one time per week or once every two weeks. That will not work. Given how hard it is to find certain products, some households literally will be going to various stores to get products if they can and especially if someone in the household cannot be without things due to health issues. Shop only once per week reads like go to one grocery store only to me and given the further restrictions on public gatherings, patience will not be a common virtue as standing outside for unknown periods of time won't be realistic for all shoppers (esp. if there is limited or no bathroom facility at the store!).

Yesterday, I got a personal care product but it's actually a slightly different version of what I normally buy. But I needed it and a sympathy card (I have not stocked up on cards this year but events occur and I want to continue sending mail).
I managed to turn the soil over in about 1/3 of the garden late in the afternoon. Read online about newspaper mulch for gardens to help with weed suppression--just don't have the energy or resources to try it now. Garlic cloves are going into the ground first today, followed by any arugula, lettuce or radish seeds (fast growers) and poppy seeds. Might wait to plant pepper seeds and others for tomorrow. What I thought was a two-day rain forecast seems to have extended to four days (Sun-Tues).

Carbohydrates seems to be a major presence in my life this week. The cocoa and sea salt porridge is a morning and late night staple for me!

My March Other Money is quite low-$16.73. There is an update that some locations of the Beer Store (with even shorter hours) and a few distribution centres are open to taking in beer and alcohol container empties. My local store is not on the list.

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
Was up early this morning and tackled a few things before the day really got started. It was nice to get a few things off my plate. It is only Thursday but this week has felt super long and my Friday meeting has been moved to today so that will not help. I really do wish it was Friday but it is only Thursday.

I did it, I tackled the budget last night and to my shock, yes it was a shock I actually came in $40 under on our grocery budget. Most of my receipts were $10 and under which helped and I only had 1 big shop which was under $50.

Now with this being said I did have some extra money set side which I used to stocked up on over the counter meds to have on hand just in case. Normally these come out of my grocery budget but since they were not needed and just precautionary I decided to use my "extra" money. Even then I only spent about half of what I thought I spent which means there is more "extra" money left than I thought. I knew I did not spend all my "extra" money but I have more than I was expected.

All and all, all areas of my budget are looking good and if needed I can move some money around if needed. Before everything happened I even bought some stuff for the house that either we did not have or needed to be replaced. Even when I added this up I still have a good amount set aside that if we need anything else I should have the $$$ set aside. Take-out well is not happening so that is just growing which might be nice, thinking when all of this is over I wouldn't mind a nice dinner out as a treat.

Today Mom is cooking the Turkey, we aren't going to make a full meal with stuffing and everything, instead we will just cook it up and break it down. We will probably have some for dinner tonight and will probably make some potatoes to go with it and whatever else we can find.

Not sure if Mom is going stir crazy or what but all of a sudden she keeps telling me we need to go shopping. I think we are fine until next week and that is my plan. Only thing is I am not sure how shopping will go, for some reason shopping sets off my anxiety so aside from smaller trips I have been making sure Mom goes with me just to be safe, I have almost had a couple of attacks at cash. But now they are saying one person per household should shop which I get but not sure Mom going alone is an option. Plus more than likely we will need to go to Costco and I really would prefer we both go.

My hope is this weekend we can clean out our 2 basement freezers and make some room so we can grab some frozen items from Costco which will have us stocked up for a few months. Normally I buy smaller amounts but right now I feel like more is better so we can limit our trips out and live off what we have.

Alright well time to get back to work, have a great day everyone.

[Frugalbigmama]

Finally Thursday!
My guy didn't have any calls this morning so I made us egg on toast for breakfast and we got to chat for a bit before our workday started.
Washed up the breakfast dishes so the kitchen is clean.

Youngest DS stayed up way too late last night. I need to talk to him today about that when he finally gets up.

I should make a meat sauce today since I can be here and let it simmer. Will make up the pasta too and then can just heat and eat later. Whatever roastbeef is in the fridge tomorrow I will put in the freezer for a quick dinner next week one night.

I need to get out but don't want to shopping. This is really sucking!

[Ciel]

Good news on the extra GST credit front-CRA tweeted that the special one-time extra credit is coming into accounts on April 9! Check the Finance link for individuals in the CRA link of this tweet: https://twitter.com/CanRevAgency/sta...25190534897664

[Ciel]

HSR is enforcing the passenger limits on buses as of April 3. Extra consideration for anyone using a mobility device that needs the back door ramp--you have to bring a companion with you who will have to deploy the ramp under Bus Operator direction. Share the news via phone tree if you know someone who will be impacted by this companion rule. And yes, the buses will pass bus stops if they hit the passenger limit aboard any bus.

[Frugalbigmama]

Good news on the extra GST credit front-CRA tweeted that the special one-time extra credit is coming into accounts on April 9! Check the Finance link for individuals in the CRA link of this tweet: https://twitter.com/CanRevAgency/sta...25190534897664

Well this is good news for DS. I will tuck it away with the other cheques I am holding for him. I'm sure he will appreciate this down the road.

[coupon girl]

We pick up our $114 worth of groceries today at fortinos ,but I looked again and it is now a 2 week wait (I don't think that is feasible )
I use to love grocery shopping with a passion ,as I guess we all did here .

Today I cleaned out the main junk drawer -oh the things I am getting done.Hubby washed the back deck as we are using it all the time ,put some sunscreen on today as pretty sunny out .

[Frugalbigmama]

PC Insiders- Reminder to all who received a free (or discounted) subscription last year around this time. Mine was set to renew at the end of the month so I canceled it today. ( I received it for free. Also received 50,000 bonus PC pts for getting it. Used the $99 travel credit for out trip in Feb to Mexico. And received $10.50 in PC pts for Joe Fresh purchases.) But I won't pay for it. Even though the travel credit is a wash really but then you are limited to book from PC travel. And no plans to go anywhere this year now

[Frugalbigmama]

My oldest just had a delivery from Canada Post. The package and shape feels like a new guitar! Mailman put on porch and then rang door bell and walked back to his truck. Glad they ring the doorbell at least. Sitting in the diningroom working I see everything....Including the neighbours boy toy driving in and out all day long...... he seemed to do this before we were all on lockdown so not sure he works.