January 2021 - Frugal Chatter (New Year, New Goals?)

[Frugalbigmama]

Dinner done ( fend for yourself leftovers)
Kitchen clean.
Laundry on the go.
Puttered in laundry room. Cleaned up boxes etc from Christmas. Have 2 boxes to go thru and condense and label for DS amd put away ( guitar and amp cords etx)

[SassyAshley]

Good Evening Everyone,
Couch blankets & pillows washed and dried.

Not much else done today, I got a ton done for work but by the time my work way was done I was feeling very very done. Not sure what is up this week, I am sleep but am feeling very tired.

Dinner was Nachos, Mom said maybe we will get take-out on the weekend. Wishes I had of known early as I would have put something in the slow cooker but oh well Nachos it was.

Think I will plan a slow cooker meal for tomorrow, just feel like I need simple this week.

Have a great night everyone

[Frugalbigmama]

Just went for a walk around the mall parking lot. Glad I went to get some fresh air and steps in.
Now I should have a shower.

[crafter]

Good morning! I got my seeds for ordered last night for assorted veggies for containers outside and some indoors. My focus will be like last year to grow food that also looks nice in containers. I'm also going to try my hand at pickling baby cukes so I'm growing dill and small white onions as well.
Our guestroom will slow morph into a temporary greenhouse for a couple of months.

I woke up super early this morning and decided to get up, shower and clean the bathroom. Next, I want to get laundry going so that I can have a guilt free Netflix or prime morning tomorrow. No more shopping for me until next week we're all stocked up.

I put on my new Joe Fresh socks that I found at Shoppers. 4 pairs for $8 super comfy and not bad consider the points I earned. Now time to put my feet in some boots and get out for a walk at the park. Have a great day!!!

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning,
All I can say is TGIF, I think today is going to be a long day, I woke up last night not feeling well. I let myself sleep in a little bit this morning to make up for not sleeping through the night so I did not get up until 7:30. Good news is I feel fine now, just a little tired and I have a headache (probably from going back to sleep after my alarm went off).

I thinking of making Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken Alfredo for dinner tonight, it only take about 4 hours in the slow cooker. We have some leftover pasta in the fridge we need to use up and you put broccoli in the Slow Cooker with the Chicken so it should be a nice simple meal for tonight.

I really need to start using my slow cooker more. It is weird, I love when I use it and always tell myself we need to use it more often but then on the day-to-day I never think of using it when I am deciding on dinner. I have started including Slow Cooker meals in my Meal Plan but this week we kind of fell off the meal plan, we need to be better next week.

Already knocked quite a couple things off today's to-do-list for work so going to finish up one more than and then off to tackle something off my house to-do-list. All and all this week has not been my week we fell off our meal plan, I have not gotten much done around the house but it is what it is. No point in focusing on the negative so instead I am going to focus on having a better week next week.

Have a great day everyone.

[Frugalbigmama]

Good Morning,
All I can say is TGIF, I think today is going to be a long day, I woke up last night not feeling well. I let myself sleep in a little bit this morning to make up for not sleeping through the night so I did not get up until 7:30. Good news is I feel fine now, just a little tired and I have a headache (probably from going back to sleep after my alarm went off).

I thinking of making Slow Cooker Garlic Chicken Alfredo for dinner tonight, it only take about 4 hours in the slow cooker. We have some leftover pasta in the fridge we need to use up and you put broccoli in the Slow Cooker with the Chicken so it should be a nice simple meal for tonight.

I really need to start using my slow cooker more. It is weird, I love when I use it and always tell myself we need to use it more often but then on the day-to-day I never think of using it when I am deciding on dinner. I have started including Slow Cooker meals in my Meal Plan but this week we kind of fell off the meal plan, we need to be better next week.

Already knocked quite a couple things off today's to-do-list for work so going to finish up one more than and then off to tackle something off my house to-do-list. All and all this week has not been my week we fell off our meal plan, I have not gotten much done around the house but it is what it is. No point in focusing on the negative so instead I am going to focus on having a better week next week.

Have a great day everyone.

Years ago I always seemed to use my slow cooker on Tuesdays for sure. I think it lined up with the night that DS had hockey practice so it makes sense. I would use mine more too now but now that we are home its just easier to toss the roast in the oven (and if I'm out at the office DS is home so I have him do it in the afternoon so its ready when I walk in the door)
But yeah I should use it more too. I will plan a crockpot day next week!

[Frugalbigmama]

TGIF is right!! And its payday so even better. No plans for spending but on eggs from SDM tomorrow. Plan on buying 4 dozen at least. My boys eat lots of eggs.

I am motivated to get more organizing done in the laundry room. Will be puttering in there over the weekend.

I also plan on wrapping birthday gifts this weekend. I am pretty much done my boys. and I am done my youngest niece. Awesome to have a FEB/JUNE/SEPT birthday done and ready!

[Ciel]

Picked up my library materials yesterday-only one person with staffer at a time. Everyone else must wait outside for their turn.
40 cents in bottle refunds and $10 into bank account too. Purolator dropped off my Well.ca order, a day before what was indicated. Happy!

Last night, I found out Mom has no intention to get a new toaster oven (Bro stopped talking about it, esp when the supposedly $75 Cuisinart airfryer oven at WM the next day had the $275 price showing (the 2 was missing the day before). I found an Oster toaster oven model I like on Walmart.ca but I really like the Breville Smart Toaster oven on Kitchen Stuff Plus (easy to read controls and display; only sticking point is the non-stick interior, as I need to know how strong the chemical smell is). I will bring back the current toaster oven into the house and found which settings don't work or if the cord is the issue. I need a toaster oven. Mom thinks turning on the gas oven to reheat leftovers is OK (no! I need to be able to do smaller roast veggie trays or cakes or cook burgers in the toaster oven, and I like toasting my bread there). Otherwise the bulky toaster will have to go back on the counter-she did not think about that yet. Also, I need to pay for the oven on my own and that's not realistic for January. So many good kitchen ware deals this month! (KSP also happens to have the OXO electronics cleaning brush on clearance for $4.79, if that is something you want to add to your cleaning kit; it retails for $7.99 usually).

I discovered the Oxo Tot line on Buy Buy Baby and I never knew about the space saving drying rack. I know it's intended for baby bottles but I can see plastic food storage containers and water bottle lids drying on this gadget. There's also a tub stopper-does it really seal the drain well? It could be handy for the laundry sink drain as the existing plugs have metal rings that when struck by a pail or hand, cause the drain plug to tilt and let water out (annoying when soaking and washing a bathroom mat or large garment). Interested in SCers' experiences with the above products!

Item ordered (on weekend) on children's store site is finally fulfilled and shipped, to be delivered next week to relative.

Craving potatoes yesterday, I made a batch of roasted potatoes with 10 little cloves of garlic and rosemary olive oil, using up most of the old potatoes and some new ones. Today, I will roast bell peppers and a red onion with at least one sliced apple and some celery. Good way to mix up veggies and textures and colours!

[Ciel]

Rain during the day and snow tonight. Exciting weather for Friday--must get into the yard for the fresh air.)

Fix things day-mending to do. Hand laundry done (two sweaters plus small clothing items are set to dry). I will find out if Bro has plans to take anything to the transfer station, as I understand he's going back to work next week (or maybe that has changed too). Stuff needs to travel...out the door!

Find a laugh today, wherever it is.

[coupon girl]

Afternoon -i went to sobeys this morning at 7.15 a.m spent less but didnt buy any meat only deli meat .
I used a 10.00 giftcard(cereal promo awhile back ) and saved 10.00 in coupons.
I got 2 free siggi yogurt 3.99-50% as it expires in a few days =1.99-2.00 cpn-1.00 checkout51=+1.01 =i made +2.01 on the 2 yogurt

They had a reduced table and i got prana chocolate bark 2.00,grandma garden laundry soap bar stain remover 2.00 and 2 boxes of enjoy life granola bars 2.00 each .

Gonna get a walk in before it rains or snows .

[coupon girl]

I just got back from my 30 minute fast paced walk -whewwww i sure didnt need a hat.

[SassyAshley]

@coupon girl , I was surprised how warn it was outside when I took out garbage. Quite windy here but not cold at all.

[SassyAshley]

Good Afternoon Everyone,
Work day is done, I feel like I got a lot done but at the same time feel like I still have a lot left to do. I have started setting my schedule for next week as January & February will be focused on training and since Ontario is under a stay-at-home order it has to all be done remotely. Next week I will focusing on new employees. Monday will be a prep day and then Tues, Wed, Thurs I have booked training in the morning and afternoon one-on-one with staff. I think i feel like I did not get a lot done because I just wrote my to-do-list for Monday.

I did not get anything earth shattering done around the house but did manager to get more done today then I have the rest of the week:
Dishwasher was unloaded & reloaded
Fridge has been cleaned out - found one container of leftovers I forgot to freeze and a couple stalks of celery that needed to go
Garbage has been taken out
Dinner is in the slow cooker

I think tonight will be a planning night. I will create our meal plan for next week, see what meal prep I can get done over the weekend and write my to-do-list for next week for stuff around the house. Our fridge is still quite full so I will have to keep that in mind as I plan my Meal Prep but am thinking I would like to get some baking done, maybe some muffins or cookies.

Hope everyone has a great night

[Ciel]

Glad I used up one red onion in the mixed roasted veggies dish tonight-some part of the onion was going bad. However the red onion added some colour along with the peppers, celery and apple. Only used olive oil to mix everything then popped pan into the oven for half hour on the low broil setting. Mixed some of the hot veggies with my cold leftover quinoa and I had dinner.

Ok, I was checking out Amazon canada and the Oxo tot drying rack is there. So tempting. Glanced at the Buy Buy Baby Facebook page and some of their customer comments remind me of the late Sears' Facebook page (order issues, refund issues, and more).

The Carter's baby clothing line on Target's US website is called Just One Year, exclusive to the chain. https://www.carters.com/justoneyear.html
Except on the Target site, it's called Just One You by Carter's.

Global Toronto ran an ad for The Equalizer series and it'll be on at 10pm ET. Our over the air antenna does not get CBS (if it did, I'd be able to watch Star Trek Discovery), so it's good to know the Canadian network is one that often is received (one of two channels usually works but it change around depending on weather).

One piece of addressed admail was today's mailbox find. Evening feels chilly and tonight's the time for peach ginger tea!

Who found some laughs today?

[lilo0003]

@Ciel we have the Breville smart toaster over, we have had it likely 10 yrs. it has become a bit temperamental getting the start button to start the right feature. Younger son feels he can disassemble and repair. I said he can wait until spring when toast is not a daily breakfast item. If it’s not repairable I would say I have liked this one so much I would replace with the same thing.
Our menu planning has worked out well since we recommitted in early December and my grocery amount is going to be half of what it usually is in January so I am happy about that. Working on the grocery list now with a hope that it’s one store and done. Fingers crossed.