July 2020 Frugal Chatter

[Angela273]

I have 2 small pick ups scheduled for today and another small one scheduled for tomorrow morning.

It is free fishing weekend in SK. We plan on going shore fishing as a family. It will be our first time taking our twins fishing. Dh already bought his fishing license for the year, I haven’t. Last year I bought a fishing license, but only went fishing once.

For reference, our twins are turning 5 at the end of July and ds will turn 8 in September.

[Frugalbigmama]

i am hoping for rain tonight. we need a good soaking.

todays stuff.... drop off donation items. those need to leave ... rightnow they are in my vehicle. we will do a quick run to ctire at the same time.
i need to do about a hour on dc stuff.
and vacume... who would have thought with 5 adults, 3 cats and 2 large dogs i wold have to vacume as much as i do .... lol

The back of my vehicle is loaded with drop offs too! A spiderman comforter to drop to the reuse it store. A printer to drop at the electronic bin. a bag filled with 102 beer cans to bring to the Beer store

[Frugalbigmama]

TGIF!!!! Finally! I feel a productive day at work today will happen and then I can enjoy the weekend I did just have a panic attack thinking Monday was the 15th and Payday because I was looking at JUNE!!! Phew!!! So that is on my list today!

[coupon girl]

Whew man this heat is hot to take -so i went to bank this morning to cash my checkout51 check -had to drive to another bank ours was closed ,the teller told me they are closing a few banks and then reopening them due to covid ,less people banking she said .

Well that was the second lineup i waited in since this pandemic and it was mostly seniors ,so the teller came out and said the first hour from 10-11 is for seniors ,and health issues .Then she came around asking each of us if we have been near anyone with covid and then she came to me are you a senior -yes i will be 61 in sept -wow you look good for your age -thank you i said .I then let the lady with a cane behind me go ahead as she looked about 80,she thanked me .

Then popped over to indigo to pick up a book i had ordered and decided to look around the store,please refrain from touching too much stuff i was told .Spent $34 on some candles ,book and a small wooden pick up truck for my house for grandkids to play with .

I wanted to go to sobeys to grab a few sale items ,but was all sweaty so decided to come home .

[Giseledta]

i am in a small town, 2 banks... 1 is closed.. 1 is open.
on our way to drop off he donation stuff we passed by a bank.. over 30 people waiting to go in.... same bank as the branch that is closed in our town.

[SassyAshley]

My original post:

Okay, think today will be a good day. I wrote myself a to do list for work last night before bed, give myself a little organization. I was really happy with my to do list, there were quite a few things on it but was all stuff I could tackle and get done. By 9 am my list had tripled, still thinking I can get most of it done today, the few things that are a little more time consuming need to be done but it doesn't need to be today so all is good.

I also took some time with my budget last night and I would still love to have a little bit more each month but wouldn't most people but it is doable. I love budgets but budgets are not my strong suit as really I have never been taught how to properly handle money. My Mom is not good with money and you say the word budget and she shuts down and my Dad we talk about money but it was what we were making and what they made us do (ie x goes into schooling, x is savings, x is spending).

No one ever really explained anything so my default has always been to save as much as possible and when something happens I just pay for it. Over the past couple of years I still have savings but that number is lower so I started to freak out especially as we started to discuss things that need to be done and all I saw was $$$. I started to panic because okay, how do I pay for all of this, cover the bills plus find a way to rebuild those savings for a rainy day.

I do set aside money for house expenses but it is not enough to cover everything we "need" right now and I do have an emergency fund but again if we spend that on the needs now how do I rebuild it. To me what we need now is not an emergency, it isn't something breaking.

I think I will spend part of my weekend doing some serious organization of what needs to be done, how can we allocate money and do all of this and keep my sanity.

[SassyAshley]

My new post:

I am really starting to think the universe is against me. I start to feel like I am in a good place and there is that brick wall.

I heard on the news they are now saying this heat wave, could last till labour day. I am trying so hard to be positive and we can make this work but I literally feel sick sitting here with a fan blowing on me just working on my laptop because of the heat and the no end in sight is not helping.

Then Mom calls and mentions her AC will not stay on, crap, than it was working okay.

Then she calls back, her AC will stay on but if she has it on it smells like something is burning, crap. Okay she is right by the dealership, call them. They were no help our next appointment available is July 17th, Mom asks can I keep driving the car, I don't know do you want the appointment on the 17th, Mom No I cannot wait that long.

I suggest she call the local mechanic we used to use, he is great and will at least give her advice, he was the one who helped in the winter when she got bad gas. He is booked till the 25th and says he suggest cannot say either way on driving it or not driving it, but he would say if she can take it home and not drive it.

I tell her okay come home, you have time and I will drive you back to work. Apparently that was the wrong answer as I got hung up on.

I know feel even sicker than just the heat as I have a feeling this is going to cost A LOT so there possibly goes the emergency fund so guess I need to re budget on how to re build that.

I swear the world is against me feeling comfortable and not stressed. Before it was my own internal anxiety and not always easy but I could deal with that but now I feel like the universe is giving me a huge slap in the face. I have been telling Mom for weeks there is no extra money, I do not have extra money, I cannot keep paying for everything and now this happens and I am going to have to pay for it. I swear it is the universe way of being like yeah not knowing the house insurance needed to be paid and coming up with that money sucked but hey look that wasn't bad, I will show you bad.

Feeling very defeated right now

[Frugalbigmama]

Good Afternoon!

Yes it is so hot out there. So crazy. Till Labour day? Ouch! At least we will enjoy our beach time since its really the only thing we are allowed to do.
We will be going swimming tonight for sure.

[Frugalbigmama]

i am in a small town, 2 banks... 1 is closed.. 1 is open.
on our way to drop off he donation stuff we passed by a bank.. over 30 people waiting to go in.... same bank as the branch that is closed in our town.

Our CIBC is still only open 10am till 1pm. Crazy. They will milk this as long as they can. Another bank isn't open at all (just the bank machines) TD has gone back to regular hours (almost)

[SassyAshley]

Most of our banks are closed but the ones 15 minutes away are open as they are in a larger populated area.

Our CIBC is still only open 10am till 1pm. Crazy. They will milk this as long as they can. Another bank isn't open at all (just the bank machines) TD has gone back to regular hours (almost)

[Frugalbigmama]

My new post:

I am really starting to think the universe is against me. I start to feel like I am in a good place and there is that brick wall.

I heard on the news they are now saying this heat wave, could last till labour day. I am trying so hard to be positive and we can make this work but I literally feel sick sitting here with a fan blowing on me just working on my laptop because of the heat and the no end in sight is not helping.

Then Mom calls and mentions her AC will not stay on, crap, than it was working okay.

Then she calls back, her AC will stay on but if she has it on it smells like something is burning, crap. Okay she is right by the dealership, call them. They were no help our next appointment available is July 17th, Mom asks can I keep driving the car, I don't know do you want the appointment on the 17th, Mom No I cannot wait that long.

I suggest she call the local mechanic we used to use, he is great and will at least give her advice, he was the one who helped in the winter when she got bad gas. He is booked till the 25th and says he suggest cannot say either way on driving it or not driving it, but he would say if she can take it home and not drive it.

I tell her okay come home, you have time and I will drive you back to work. Apparently that was the wrong answer as I got hung up on.

I know feel even sicker than just the heat as I have a feeling this is going to cost A LOT so there possibly goes the emergency fund so guess I need to re budget on how to re build that.

I swear the world is against me feeling comfortable and not stressed. Before it was my own internal anxiety and not always easy but I could deal with that but now I feel like the universe is giving me a huge slap in the face. I have been telling Mom for weeks there is no extra money, I do not have extra money, I cannot keep paying for everything and now this happens and I am going to have to pay for it. I swear it is the universe way of being like yeah not knowing the house insurance needed to be paid and coming up with that money sucked but hey look that wasn't bad, I will show you bad.

Feeling very defeated right now

oh dear SassyAshley. You don't want to hear it but I know many of us here are thinking you are being taken advantage of by your mom. Personally, I would say in this crazy time that food is the only shopping item and everything else can wait. (unless it is an emergency)
All you seem to do is work and clean house and worry. That doesn't sound fun to me. You need to enjoy life while you can. Hugs.

[Frugalbigmama]

Most of our banks are closed but the ones 15 minutes away are open as they are in a larger populated area.

What is the population of your town?

[SassyAshley]

Ok, I could edit my post but I will just move on.

Mom found someone to look at her car today but they will look and see if it is a quick fix and they can do it today. Oh please please please fingers crossed they can fix it.

They gave Mom tonight off but she has to work all weekend so if her car is not fixed I will need to drive her back and forth all weekend which maybe interesting as I am supposed to working chat tomorrow. Might have to call my boss and be like here is the situation.

As well if they cannot fix it we need to figure out next week as she has a few shifts next week but they are all short shifts and I would have to drive her in and then go back and pick her up. Also most of them are odd hours like 11 to 3 or 10 to 2 which I will have to see how I can juggle work. If she is working 10 to 2 we would have to leave just after 9 to take her, got back around 10:30ish than I could work till just after 1 go back pick her up and then get home probably around 3. Without Covid I would work in our location 15 minutes from her work but with Covid I cannot, but we have to do what we have to do.

Fingers Cross all goes well at this appointment and it is a quick and simple fix

[Frugalbigmama]

I finally re-set the password on my #2 PC Optimum card. I haven't been able to use it for months.
I have $20 to redeem on it so I changed it to be able to redeem.

Have this offer- 400 pts per $2 spent on Armstrong Cheese. On for $4 at No Frills. I have .75 coupons. We are completely out of cheese so this will be perfect for tacos. (no work or mess to clean up from shredding it!)

[SassyAshley]

Thank you, I think this is why as weird as it sounds when covid was it highest shockingly I was at my calmest because everything was controlled. We were literally only buying groceries, there was no take-out, there were no extra expenses, granted groceries were over budget but with no other spending it wasn't an issue.

No life is swinging towards to normal and exactly now everything else comes into play, like this happened and the reason Mom would have had time to come home and me take her back was because she went to Wal-Mart before work and was going to go somewhere else too.

Also now you have the options to shop again so it is back to we need to replace this or we need this and all I see is $$$. I am happy to just spend the next couple of months just buying groceries and seeing what happens in the world

I thought I was doing well by being like I do not have the money, I cannot pay for things but then it is something that we to fix. We cannot go without her car because we cannot share mine.

oh dear SassyAshley. You don't want to hear it but I know many of us here are thinking you are being taken advantage of by your mom. Personally, I would say in this crazy time that food is the only shopping item and everything else can wait. (unless it is an emergency)
All you seem to do is work and clean house and worry. That doesn't sound fun to me. You need to enjoy life while you can. Hugs.