April 2020 Frugal Chatter Thread

[coupon girl]

supper tonight was a yummy swiss chalet chicken pot pie -bought 2 pkgs in the grocery store a few weeks back ,with fresh green beans and broccoli

I had a bad day this morning ,I was crying as I miss my grown kids and grandkids,had a small argument with hubby -ohhh life is not easy lately

Did clean out our green bin today ,it was discusting I am now going to use the small bags ,my neighbour told me Costco had 2 rolls for like 13.99 ,she thinks that is the cheapest ,any thoughts I paid 4.49 Thursday for 20 bags of no name

Then son called me and we chatted for a half hour so that made my day .

Didn't get a small walk in today so there is always sunday ,right.

[SassyAshley]

Good Evening Everyone,
Still fighting this headache, I am trying to go med free today to see if that helps, who knows maybe I am in rebound.

I did not get anything done last night, instead I went through my part balls of yarn and picked a project to work on. It seems so weird to say this but I feel like since all of this started I have lost my me time. I am going to try hard to get back my me time and work on things for me.

I did manage to clean the kitchen, we cannot move our stove or fridge but did remove the stove drawer. The whole kitchen has been swept and mopped and is now all sparkly and shiny. I also did the Hallway since I had the mop and bucket out. Tomorrow I might tackle upstairs, normally I use a swiffer wet on the hardwood but thinking as part of my spring cleaning, I might take the mop up and give it all a good scrub down as well.

The struggle is real right now, I could not image being home with kids but I will say being home with one of us working and one of us not is proving to be a challenge. Mom kept offering to help me clean the floors today but two of us cannot really mop and I do appreciate the gesture but anything I suggest she do I was told, tomorrow. I get it everyone is feeling a little on edge right now, rightfully so and I am trying to be patient and understanding but I am going a bit insane. I am still working full time and Mom sits here and works on her smash journals. I was really hoping we would get a few things done with us both being home but every time I try to tackle something I get "we have time, there is no need to rush" or "I just not feeling it today, maybe tomorrow." I feel like I am lacking structure and movement in my life right now as I literally sit here over 50 hours a week right now working, so I am going a little crazy but on the flip side not feeling supported in what I am trying to do is well making me feel very judged. I am happy to be home and be safe but I am really feeling the lack of space right now.

Tonight we are having Breakfast for dinner, we are making:
Eggs, Bacon, Toast and Potato Pancake

Also, Mom started it yesterday and she made 18 hour no knead bread. We just tried a slice and it is really good, it is ciabatta which one of my favourite breads.

The family chat is very busy tonight, going to go and see what everyone is up to.

Have a great night everyone.

[cath007]

Good earlier evening everyone!!!!

Well I dont think school will restart in earlier may...I have a bad feeling about that one...

Went for a long walk with father at my favorite spot we saw a rainbow it was beautiful and not to busy

I am thrilled that my favorite humour *funny * tv show will rebegging with new episodes tonight !!! And that some tv channels are now accessible with the crisis so it is good

Have an awesome evening and night everyone

[Angela273]

Dh and I ordered sushi and a bento box for supper. The kids had they wanted from it and are having leftovers and strawberries for their supper.

Dh are going to work on our taxes tonight when the kids are in bed.

Tomorrow I plan on making roast beef with onion and garden carrots. Mashed potatoes and gravy too. I’m running low on garden carrots.

[Angela273]

Dh and I filed our tax returns this evening. It says that we are both getting refunds. Tax return money is mostly earmarked for property taxes, home insurance, and life insurance.

[Giseledta]

good morning.. sleep was.. whatever. i have compleatly given up up a decnt sleep till this is over

i am thinking going outside again for some garden work .. prob do alot more tomorrow.. today is cooler temp...

i am so need to prep a area for youngest to start painting... she is painting a mural on one of my daycare walls.

i need to drive over and drop off a gift to a daycare child. bbqing burgers tonight for supper... or maybe sloppy joes.. not sure.. doeneds on how the weahter plays out


i am getting very concerned about my gardening season.. we have a local garden center, who tends to be very popular. they were doing curb side pick up.. and delivery.. however.. they have already sold out of many onion sets, and seeds.. they halted service to restock... this is a huge center. i have been seeing people go and buy soil ect.. and my neighbour is building garden beds.....
part of me is happy that people are gardening.. yea.. excellent.. part of me is concerned about finding the few plants ( veggies... onion sets .. ) that i need...
concerning times

[Frugalbigmama]

Good morning! My guy made us yummy irish oats and coffee. He makes them so good. I feel tired today. Going to Costco and checking on house reno .FIL is working on. Get out for a bit.

[Ciel]

Good earlier evening everyone!!!!

Well I dont think school will restart in earlier may...I have a bad feeling about that one...

Went for a long walk with father at my favorite spot we saw a rainbow it was beautiful and not to busy

I am thrilled that my favorite humour *funny * tv show will rebegging with new episodes tonight !!! And that some tv channels are now accessible with the crisis so it is good

Have an awesome evening and night everyone

It's great that the Quebec premier ordered the stores closed today to give retail workers a day off (not sure if that applies to anyone doing overnight stocking for Monday but there it is).

I'll have to see if Radio-Canada has any other programs beyond La Facture, L'Epicerie and Infoman (funny spin on current events) because English language tv, aside from Inside the Story and The Agenda are not appealing. Add to the fact that I can only get Fox 29 or Charge 29-3 when the weather seems foggy or rainy (but City-tv is pretty much absent for past month-Bro says maybe the channel changed signal towers recently). TV/Netflix is mostly Bro's and Mom's entertainment. I have the Youtube app on my laptop and will considering adding CBC Gem app if it has some really old 70s and 80s shows that I'd love to see again (Airwaves, The Beachcombers, Street Legal-original and more recent mini-series, The Friendly Giant!).

Just finished roasting some potatoes (lemon garlic Greek style with added rosemary for zip) and popped two Highliner salmon loins with oil and salt and foil cover into the oven (nicer breakfast for a change). Will go to Longos for a small shop as I'm out of some staples and did not shop/walk yesterday (it was basically do almost nothing day). My "laptop sleeve" will get electrical tape for covering the opening edges-the 3M tape is not going to stay in place long.

Zara Home has some lovely sleepwear and slippers on its website. In case you want slippers for kids, yourself, someone in need of a gift or for guest use, take a look. https://www.zarahome.com/ca/search.html?term=slippers

[coupon girl]

Hubby and I walked today for 30 minutes -it was from 11.30 til noon and I said to him "its like a ghost town" only saw one jogger (we live in the suburbs)oh and neighbour 3 doors down drove by in their car and waved

Supper will be 1/3 of the big roast I had initially bought in jan to have son and his family over -nope its now 3 meals for hubby and I over the next month or two.

I have an adult 70's colouring book I bought ages ago at Dollarama so decided to relax and colour with my pencil crayons(from my kids school years-many years ago).So I coloured a swirly picture and cut 2 hearts out of my colouring and mailed 2 teddy bear blank cards (see I always have cards on hand except sympathy ones) and told my grandkids to have a happy easter and that I loved them .
I put a plain mask in with my daughter's as she doesn't have any and if she feels the need to use it later she will have it .

Yard is all raked 2 bags from front and back -good feeling ,was listening to music by the cranberries (love this group) but it went dead ,so back to laundry it is .

[lilo0003]

@gisel dta I did an online order with our garden centre. They still had lots of stuff so hopefully yours will restock. I ordered spring urns which I never do but I just needed something to brighten the yard, I added soil and rosemary plants to get to 100.00 so they will deliver for free next weekend. I had some seeds left from past years so planted them and now we will see what germinates. A local church has switched its plant sale to delivery only so I am going to order as much as I can from them including the veggies. I normally love the Costco garden centre but even if they open I just it will be a level of crazy I would rather avoid. I think I am going to put the clothes line out this week. At least I feel sort of productive. We have settled into a routine of working at home.

[Ciel]

Had two Canada Geese eating grass in our backyard. Then the honking-while I was tossing dirty looks at them. When I had to take something to the green bin cart, I took along my umbrella. The pair of geese were moving towards one property boundary and the honking goose kept honking. I don't want them to settle in as goose poop is nasty on sidewalks and I don't want it in the yard *there's a nearby watering hole and some local geese know where it is*. Maybe there are too many geese and the ponds are crowded? Hoping a red fox keeps tabs on the pair so they get the message.

Longos Experience magazine is in the store and I noticed some event dates have passed (Ancaster was to have a Health Fair today but I did not see any display or setup while I was shopping). Magazine link has some yummy recipes including the weekday recipes featured in the current digital flyer: https://en.calameo.com/read/0056603006bfb3ee051ee

Longos has taken the small carts out of service and I did not need a large cart. Mind you, some of my produce picks were heavy and I made sure not to dawdle. Chance bonus find-checkout lane had a couple of Lysol Simply Wipes packs for sale so I asked to buy one (as I could not find any a few days ago when l last was in the store). Had to wait 5-10min outside before being allowed into the store.

Walmart lineup wait time was the same. Found three things (could not get two name brand items so grabbed the store brand ones just to have product and Band-Aids and was at cash). At least this time cashier put my order on second conveyor belt but she did not tell other customer to use the button to move the remainder of his order down the belt nor make me wait until he had left lane, so I skirted around him as it was taking 2 extra minutes for him to load some bulky items. Social distancing is sort of not being enforced it seems.

Plan to chop my reduced price peppers and colourful carrots later today, so peppers are ready for stuffed pepper soup later in the week and carrots are ready for roasting tomorrow morning with some onions and garlic to have on hand. May do a second walk soon while sun is out (shady spots are freezing!). It's fun to notice all the tulips, scilla and more in other neighbours' yards while walking! Some reading is in order too-need to catch up on some books!

[SassyAshley]

Today has turned into a bit of a lazy day. I know I am not in the best mood today, I think I really need to get out of the house but that is really not an option at this point. We come out of self isolation tomorrow and now I need to figure out shopping.

I wanted to go Shopping Tuesday but I now have a late afternoon meeting and all of our stores are now closing at 6 so this may not work depending on how late the meeting goes. I have also decided we are not going to Costco until we clean the freezers as I want to stock up on frozen items next time we go so hopefully we do not have go back soon.

Before all of this started I grabbed a couple extra bags of milk (there was always tons in stock) and we froze them, I was a bit iffy about this as the reviews online for frozen milk were hit a miss, a lot of people mentioned it extended the life of your milk but you will notice a difference. I have to be honest, I do not see a difference but we really only use Milk for Tea, Cooking and Baking, we do not drink Milk.

Tonight for dinner I took out 2 bags of homemade Bolognese, I am going to cook up some Pasta and make an ooey gooey Cheesy Pasta Bake, I just need some comfort food. I will also use some of the bread Mom made to make Garlic Parm Bread and will also make a Cesar Salad as well.

When we cook the Pasta, I am going to make some extra Pasta so tomorrow I can make a Pasta Salad to have in the fridge. I know we are both home now but we are still struggling with eating properly.

Off to do some more binge watching on Netflix and maybe work on my crochet. Have a Great Day everyone.

[Ciel]

Did a walk to Fortinos (found a few of the coupons that @mcminsen posted in the Coupon thread) but the coupon board has been relocated from the cart carrel to between hot foods and single serve bottles of beverages. Got $2.49 pop at Shoppers but could not find any Aero Easter chocolate treats. Will consider going to a different and larger Shoppers for Thursday. Still no treasure finds on my walk.

Shoppers has signs on the photo kiosk and the copier that they are not available. Shoppers Photo site indicates an update is coming for April 6 and no orders are being accepted for the current time. https://www.shoppersphoto.ca/

Glad to see @annedougherty 's post on the SC Blog about free shipping on Sephora's site and mention of how one can get their birthday freebie for April via a low cost purchase online. I might have to plan on getting a brow item this week (I already had my birthday freebie but this brow item keeps falling off my things for me shopping list)!

Since the weather is breezy and sunny enough so far, I should wash and bleach rinse the household collection cans to freshen them up. Nothing like rinsing off dirt and smelling freshly bleached bins in the spring air! Wiping down the clotheslines and oiling the wheels is another to-do and I'd love to paint a post but all I have is white spray paint when a gray-blue tint would be better. Job jar time!

Flowers-I noticed that there is one clump of purple crocuses open on far edge of flower bed and that the clump of 12 pale lilac ones already has a couple of wilted flowers. Two daffodil bulbs are almost ready to open! Exciting...usually only one bloom crops up. Carpet of scilla too.

Veggie prep remains on today's list...holding off for another hour because I want to relax too.

[coupon girl]

We had a most yummy roast (one piece left over for me) roasted potatoes,zucchini,broccolli ,green beans .
A homemade muffin and tea for dessert .

Chatted with both my neighbours at the bottom of my front step -each was on their own lawns .My neighbour works at shoppers (her son) and the amount of cleaning they do is a lot she said .

I had a good up day today ,as Ashlyn called last night to tell us her front tooth feel out and the tooth fairy was coming ,then she called this morning to tell us about it.

My dear son sent me an email with Ashlyn showing us her missing tooth ,and cara wanted him to take a picture of her mouth also -hummmm I miss that 2 year old (whom I babysit once a week in the past, who know when I will again )who by the way is fully toilet trained now .

[Angela273]

I just grabbed some newspapers from the recycling to go behind the Easter pictures that kids will be painting this week.

I’m upset because I checked on my tulips and they FROZE. I’ve never had that happen before. I’m doubtful that I’ll have any flowers from those plants. We received snow again last week and it took 4 days before it got above zero during the day. We were excited...watching them grow. I watered them once last week and I don’t know if that’s what helped make them freeze or just what? There are big wilted yellow leaves...