November 2020 Frugal Chatter thread

[lilo0003]

DS1 and I did some Christmas shopping all at small local retailers. In doing so I discovered that I need to return a gift I bought for him last week as he was not as impressed as I was. Better to do it now. I also found a 5.00 Visa gc in my wallet. Used it just in time as it expires Monday. I used one of my many free coffees on my McDonald’s app and discovered even a free one gets another reward. I love this program. Every 7 cups gets me two free, one with the app and one with the sticker. Currently I am using up the rewards from pre Covid because they expire December 31 so it’s a nice treat. I used to get coffee 3-4 times a week when I worked in the city. Now it’s maybe 2xs a month.
I think I will enjoy the sunshine and go for a walk.

[SassyAshley]

Good Afternoon Everyone,
Today ended up being a bit of a blah day, my headache has dulled but is not gone. At first I was thinking it was a weather headache as they were calling for for rain today but so far it has been bright and sunny all day.

I did get some of dips I wanted to make for the week done, I made:
Spreadables - So much cheaper to make yourself than buying the ones in stores
Garlic Garlic Sauce - Planning on Slovaki Bowls one night for dinner this week and I find this sauce is better if it sits minimum a day
Peanut Butter Dip - Yum so good with Apples or Celery
Guacamole - I had some ripe Avocados so I turned them into Guacamole which I will eat this week, I have found a way of storing it up to 3 days

Happy to have a few dips on hand so this week I will have some quick grab and go snacks.

Still trying to decide on dinner tonight, I fell asleep on the couch for a bit this afternoon so feeling a little behind now but guess I needed the sleep.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful day

[Angela273]

We just won a $25gc to a local coffee shop. Zoom bingo through our public library. Dh and I played along with another lady. 3ppl didn’t show up, so the odds were in our favour.

[GoodBoy]

I hear you re: Odds! I entered a FB comment contest the other week and in the end was the only one who commented! Hence ... I WON!

[Giseledta]

what a very nice sunny day, so nice. i managed to get a bunch of stuff done.
tomorrow i am hoping to finish decorating the outside, work on the dc rooms and prep stuff. i am finding my self very under motivated lately.
hopefully i find some soon.
I might make some christmas cookies see if that helps....

[Giseledta]

good mornng. my oldest is 28 today.. wow times flys!!

making homemade pizza later, and a carrot cake. might make up some Christmas cards as well. get those started.
laundry needs to get done... not much , and decorate the front... even though we are going to have a storm coming...
should spend a bit of time menu planning as well. .....
fun times

chat later

[coupon girl]

Giseledta - i am feeling just like you ,no motivation .I did manage to do my xmas village on friday ,but i am only putting up a table top tree ,as no visitors will be coming .

I am goin g grocery shopping every 2 weeks now with maybe a stop inbetween at shoppers for milk etc.Today i was at sobeys at 7.15 a.m me and 2 others were in the store i spent $167.79 and got 177 airmiles treated my self to quality street large tin for 9.99 that is the cheapest i have seen it (3 day sale at sobeys)

[Angela273]

We put up our regular full sized Christmas tree yesterday. It looks nice. We usually don’t put it up this early because I usually have toddlers in the house. This will be my first December not running a daycare since our twins turned 1. It will be our first Christmas without our old cat. Only one cat in our house this Christmas.

[coupon girl]

Wow good thing i had my hubby try on the navy chino pants i bought him from old navy as they dont fit ,yet the same black pair i bought in august fit him perfect (i think the navy dont have as much give or flex as the black pair)

I hope they have it in stock as i will go to the mall this week as i need to buy a gift in lush store and a giftcard at sephora.

[lizzie bargain]

Well today I cleaned out our fridge freezer and made some muffins-so at least I accomplished something-lol. DH has gone to run some errands. DD and boyfriend and puppy are expected Dec 14 for a few days-so we will have our Xmas dinner mid Dec. Still keeping busy babysitting 3 days per week- 3, 18 month old boys and their 3 year old brother keep me hopping. At least it has been mild enough most days to take them out to play.

[crafter]

I went out early this morning to buy Kelloggs items for the donation box. It felt great. I then popped into Walmart to buy vitamins to send in my DD prepaid mailing box. I couldn't help but stock up on large bags of chipits fo $7.97. Now if we can only avoid eating them, they are so good mixed with planters peanuts.
I'm just finishing a coffee and then it's outside to put up some xmas lights and do a bit of preventative caulking around some decorative stones that we have.
We're zooming with a friend later this afternoon for birthday drinks which will be nice.
Have a great day everyone!

[SassyAshley]

Good Evening Everyone,
Got the kitchen stuff done today (no meal prepping) and that was about it.

Pork Roasts have been cut down and are on the freezer. Butternut Squash cooked leftovers in the fridge. Turns out we also needed to use up the 2 Acorn squash so they were also cooked up for dinner with the leftovers in the fridge. Thinking next time we by squash I will store it in the basement, I think it is too warm where we were storing it. I have moved a few other things to the basement and it is better for storage, so I think I will need to reorganize our stockpile room to make room to store veggies down their over the winter.

Well sucker sealing the Pork Roast I also broke down a package of pepperoni we had into individual servings to make homemade pizza. That was it in the kitchen for us, should have done more but it is what it is.

I am working from home tomorrow so hopefully I can get a few things done. I also need to try to figure out my Hydro situation. I got a notice that my request has been processed and would apply to my next billing cycle which would be now but when I log into my account it still looks like I am on TOU. When I phoned the automated system said I am on TOU but when I spoke to an operator they said that is just because yes my billing cycle has changed but my bill has not been posted, once my bill has been posted it would change. My bill has been posted but still looks like I am in on TOU and when I tried calling again customer service was closed but the automated system now says there is a request pending on my account so I am confused. I just do not want to trust blindly that I am on tiered and then get a massive bill.

I was also looking over my bill and even though our Hydro usage has gone down over all our bill has gone up because even with trying to be careful with being home we are using more mid peak and on peak hydro.

I really need to figure out Christmas, I have not started yet. Normally I do handmade gifts but I feel I need to step up my efforts this year but I just cannot come up with a plan so that is on the to do list for this week.

I am hoping to defrost our stand up freezer this week so I can inventory what we have and decide if I need to do one more big shop before Christmas. I feel like we are good on everything except maybe Chicken, I know we have a lot of pre prepped Chicken (Shredded, BBQ, Parm, Pesto, Souvlaki & Teriyaki) but not sure how much regular chicken we still have. Although now the Christmas is officially own household only I do feel more confident we can make it without another big shopping trip but we will see.

Alright off to write out the recipe for tomorrow night's dinner and than I think it is bedtime for me.

Have a great night everyone

[lilo0003]

I used 3 of the butternut squash and made soup tonight. It’s so yummy. Lunches for the week are done. Did a trip to Costco today. Yikes. I did not even stock up, it was a few gifts and a couple of meals for the month.
Today we planned meals for the next 12 days. Hopefully this helps because we are all tired of dinner at home. Work has never let up for DH and I so we fall into a dinner rut, thankfully the older son doesn’t least 3 meals a week. With a plan he will often do 5 of the meals so that’s a huge help.

[coupon girl]

morning -online shopped this morning joe fresh sleep pants for me -as i only have 4 pair and one is old .

Then i decided to shop at the bay and get a half price toy for my granddaughter and put away for easter (i am thinking ahead )

Plus both stores i shopped at had free shipping which is nice this time of year .

[Ciel]

Such a grey morning! Was glad I got some groceries yesterday afternoon and posted the rest of the Xmas cards (DONE).

Bro earned a few rants from me-he thought a 50" tv appropriate for our small living room (no advance family conversation and he's ordered a unit for it which might not be a console but a wall unit?). I'm giving the tv a wide berth but I need to figure out if I can connect the Blu Ray to the parked older tv in the corner to watch my dvds.
At best 42" was about as large he could have gone. Mom got earfuls from me. Yes I know all three of us have arrested development in conversation but basically the lack of consensus on house rules, common areas and basic respect has us at war. Not helping with my health at all...thus I did a late afternoon walk yesterday.

Entered my last two McDonalds Monopoly codes (last day to enter codes on website, which will close tomorrow. Check out the major prize claims-some prizes have more claims than actual number of prizes). Not sure if I can get the free muffin today before the stock runs out at Walmart or the restaurant near Longos. TBD.