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

[Ciel]

Ok, I got my sunshine time during the walk and the ski socks from Winners from two years go were keeping me toasty! Small scarf around hood helped keep out draft (wind was at my back) and I tried not to mouth-breathe. Grateful I remembered to apply hand cream before I gloved up for my walk.

Had a good visit with friend! She gave me a new Star Wars The Mandalorian puzzle and a lottery ticket. I was surprised! I gave her some goodies from a bakery.

Brother decided to treat family to Swiss Chalet for dinner and used a coupon he had. The pull apart garlic loaf buns-you get a container of garlic spread to apply into the bun and not all the buns got the shredded cheese on top. Probably better to get the garlic bread from Pizza Pizza for the garlic hit (something I discovered last summer and ate on way home). Side garden salad with chicken potpie dinner was fairly large in its own container. Some salad is leftover for another meal. There are online NFL Game Day meal deals with Pepsi that will get you entered into the contest featuring NFL Shop prizes (somewhat different contest from Montana's but both involve PepsiCo drink purchases).
Mom and I had our Euro tarts (French Lemon for her and Pumpkin Cream with ginger for me) this morning and Bro had a chocolate version after dinner. Yum Yum!
@SassyAshley Thank you for pointing out about the grey days in the forecast. See if you can put 15min fresh air breaks into your planner (say maybe before lunch and mid-afternoon) so you may glimpse Ms. Sunshine or people or treasure! I usually crave a tea or something warm after being outdoors. And you are a tea person...

[GoodBoy]

A pleasant surprise today. We had a service call for our dishwasher in early December. Determined it was not worth fixing.

We purchased a new one from same company. So far very happy with the new one.

Today we received a credit back on the credit card for the service call cost from December. This is since we purchased anew from same company.

So that was a nice touch from the company. Service call cost us nothing in the end and we are very pleased with the new dishwasher to-date.

[SassyAshley]

@Ciel , Yes I am a tea drinker, we have a wide variety on hand at all times.

I am not a winter person so I do avoid going outside if it is snowing or cold. Plus right now my days are so full finding the time during the day is hard. I have to push hard all day so I can get a break at night. I am hoping once the training blitz ends in February things will start to calm down. For this week coming up I have 4 people in training so between training them I still have to find time to handle my day to day work.

Although I did talk to my boss the other day and he sensed my frustration and did take a few things off my plate which was nice. Tomorrow I will be setting a few more projects that once I have them set up I can pass off which again will be nice.

[Ciel]

The navy cardigan came and it's rather big for me and Mom. However, I will be wearing it and have to be easy on the pockets as knitwear is fine-men's version as I cannot find a similar style for women anywhere that is the same wool-blend.

Managed a visit to the bank-two store entities in future I will have to consider getting Mom or friend to make purchases on their credit card and I will give them cash. One of the Visa holds essentially doubled-the amount of order plus charge for every shipment that went out. Hold only reversed after last of 4 items shipped. Cannot afford to have my funds held like that-usually when first of two or more item ships, the hold reverses. The second hold occurred AFTER the order was shipped and received by recipient and it was for an amount under $30. The hold was reversed two days ago, so 6 calendar days elapsed. That was a surprise too. Glad to have my passbook update and the time at the bank.

TD bank customers-CBC's The National reported last night about mystery DoorDash charges on accounts. Check to see that there are not any unauthorized charges, as some people in the segment don't even use DoorDash or have its service in their areas. The people were told by banks it could take a month to resolve the issues. No one wants to be dealing with hassles like that during a lockdown or ever, really.

[Ciel]

@GoodBoy Is the new dishwasher quieter than previous model or about the same level of decibels? Who is having the most fun using the model's various washing cycles?

[GoodBoy]

@GoodBoy Is the new dishwasher quieter than previous model or about the same level of decibels? Who is having the most fun using the model's various washing cycles?

The old model was 16 years old. The new one seems to be similar in sound level as the old one. As for washing cycles. No one. We only run when full and then just use the normal cycle. Once in a blue moon maybe the sani-wash or pots-n-pans cycle, but rarely. The normal cycle is more that good enough for our needs and does a stellar job so far.

[GoodBoy]

Just got another great deal in my inbox. Last summer Amex Canada provided up to $250.00 rebate on spend at Sobeys and/or Metro. We took advantage of the full $250.00.

Now in 2021 they are doing similar albeit only $200.00. But still a rebate of up to that amount at Sobeys and/or Metro and good until mid-July 2021. So that is something we definitely will be doing once again. It will help stock up the BBQ larder for the summer with good steaks, sausages, etc and all on AX rebate!

[Angela273]

Our twins received their first birthday party invitation since Covid started. Dh discussed it and I hate it, but we won’t let them go. It’s an invitation by to attend the birthday party of the other set of boy/girl twins in their class. It’s at the local indoor play centre, with a limit of 30ppl. Still too many people and unknowns for our liking. Ugh. Not what Kindergarten is supposed to be.

[HermanH]

Our twins received their first birthday party invitation since Covid started. Dh discussed it and I hate it, but we won’t let them go. It’s an invitation by to attend the birthday party of the other set of boy/girl twins in their class. It’s at the local indoor play centre, with a limit of 30ppl. Still too many people and unknowns for our liking. Ugh. Not what Kindergarten is supposed to be.

Always nice to see someone acting prudently. It's just too bad that the hosts don't agree and think that a gathering of 30, from multiple households, is sufficiently safe.

I think that decisions like these are the reason why the country and world continue to be bedeviled by CoVid.

[SassyAshley]

@Angela273 , although I do not have kids I feel for you, right now must be so hard to manage what is safe vs what others are allowing their children to do.

I know of someone who went to a "Covid Safe" Birthday party, the parent from the party randomly got tested on the Monday following party for work, had no symptoms and came back positive.

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
Pretty good morning here, I am rolling through my work to-do-list at a nice rate which is nice. It is what I feel like I needed today is to just get stuff off my plate and next week we go back into a lot of training.

Also making me happy is getting some stuff done around the house well I work. Last night before bed I emptied my sock drawer and undergarment drawer into my laundry basket and these are in the washing machine right now. I may hate myself for this later as I hate folding these items but I also know a lot of these items will not be going back into the drawers because I just have way too much. Literally those two drawers are a fill load of laundry which is just insane.

Well I was making myself a honey & lemon to sip on I got half of the dishwasher emptied, will go back and do the other half after I get one more thing off my work to-do-list. I am working on the balance of trying to get it all done as I see myself falling back into the habit that by the time I am done work, I am done and not a lot is getting done around the house.

Still need to figure out dinner for tonight, do not really have any cravings so we will have to see what I come up. Earlier I was thinking pasta but if I make pasta I want to do lasagna which maybe a little tricky to get done on a work day, we will see how my day goes.

Have a great day everyone

[coupon girl]

Morning -off to file some paper work .Boy is it chilly as i went out to add to my garbage just now .brrrr.

I am gonna try to go for a walk .

[Angela273]

I’m very grateful for being a cyber school teacher right now, but my own 3 children attend a physical school. They have been wearing masks long before our province mandated it for children their age.

SK is still having very high Covid rates.

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[Frugalbigmama]

Good day!!! Crazy day at work but getting through it and just needed a little "me" break.

I just had some lunch (chili).

Tonight I will continue on the laundry from DS's closet clean out. I didn't want to get to far ahead since most of it I hang to dry. So as soon as I get home I will have whichever boy I see 1st lol come to the laundry room and take all the clean stuff upstairs. Then I will put another load of darks in the washer and fold the towels in the dryer.

I have a laundry basket of my stuff to decide what is staying and going. Kind of like your plan @SassyAshley - I dumped it all in the bin so I could just deal with it and make a decision.

[coupon girl]

I just made peanut butter cookies -my son will drop off the 2 items i had him get from costco .I will give him a treat of a few peanut butter cookies for his family,left on my front porch


I just went for a 20 minute walk -wow my legs feel numb as i only had thin joggers on (my fleece lined warm grey ones were in the wash)lol