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

[SassyAshley]

It is a New Year, 2020 is behind us.

Do you have new Goals, new Budgets?

[crafter]

Still have to quantify the budget goals but less waste, more organization and enough room in the freezer for ice cream are my themes.

[lizzie bargain]

DH and I reviewed our yearly spending vs income and net worth this morning and all seems to be in order. Making sure to keep $ set aside for tax time as we both received the CERB. Tomorrow DH will also top up our TFSA's for next year. I think staying healthy will continue to be our top priority!

[flemeth]

Thank you @SassyAshley for starting the new thread

My goal is to stay healthy . My plan is to spend less . Have lots of meat and seafood in the freezer so will try to used up what’s in there before I buy new stock also I want have less food waste

[SassyAshley]

Overall I came in under budget across the board but with that being said really our only spending has been groceries. Even though I was worried about our grocery budget as there were a few months we were over budget all and all at the end of the year I was slightly under budget but that is because I spent less on Christmas.

Since I do homemade gifts (most are edible since sis is in an apartment & bro & gf in Condo they do not want stuff as they do not have room), plus normally I do Christmas Eve desserts I added a little extra for my grocery budget for December but did not use it all.

I did also move $100 from our Take-Out Budget to our grocery budget earlier in the year when Costco had Ground Beef on sale for $6 off per tray.

I mean I feel we spent a little more this year but we are so stocked up right now we have not been grocery shopping in over 2 weeks and there is not a single staple we are running low on and our meals are not boring. I have not had a moment where we wanted to make something but did not have what we needed on hand. So for that I am happy.

Originally my plan had been not to shop in January but I see Costco has a few items going on sale until the 17th so I may do a small Costco shop, grab what they have one sale, grab a few fresh items (mushrooms & romaine) and maybe grab a couple stock up items. I really want to be better at stocking up with each shop vs waiting until we are out of 20 things and needing to do a large expensive shop, yes in the end budget wise it works out but my BIG goal for this year is to be more organized including with our shopping.

I do hope we can go back to our "New Normal" soon but Covid will still be here for months so I do want to keep limiting trips to the grocery store so hopefully if we are better stocked up the urge will not be there. Although I have noticed lately I think I use shopping as a reason to get out of the house, like we do not need anything right now but I was tempted to go to No Frills just to get out of the house.

As it stands most of my numbers with my budget will remain the same for 2021.

[coupon girl]

I plan to stock up to keep my grocery shopping down,try to utilize all the points systems .To cook from scratch more .To sell on kijiji and look to the free ads also.

I notice i am grocery shopping every 10 -11 days ,so i will keep that up.Less waste is a big one i want to impliment ,so now i am asking for 4 or 5 deli slices etc so as not to waste.

Trying to keep clothing costs down (not buying -lol) will shop thrift stores one day in the future .Always looking for adjustments if my gap clothing or the bay goes on sale .

Shop for the grandkids ahead when i can , i have a few things for easter already .etc.

Oh and try to find more coupons and use them more often before they expire if they are a good deal.

[Angela273]

I don’t plan on making a New Years resolution.

I’m preparing for 7 new students to join my Grade 7 cyber school class next week. All of the K-9 cyber school teachers in this school division have a 1 semester teaching contract. I’m waiting for my teaching contract to be extended until the end of June. My current teaching contract ends at the end of January.

[flemeth]

Happy New Year everyone. All the best for 2021

[Ciel]

We made it into 2021! Woohoo!!

Last night, I enjoyed watching the musical segments of Radio-Canada's 7pm program *lots of English and French songs* along with TVO's Monty Don's American Gardens (if Florida can grow avocados, why are they not in our produce departments?). I also had beer (had $1 in empties to return as well), as I bought the Rickards Taster pack to mark the New Year and have with buttered popcorn (my celebration idea). Curried lentil stew was made for lunch and I had to use red and green lentils as I hadn't realized how little quantity of red lentils were left.

Today, I put up my 2021 Baby Yoda The Mandalorian calendar. Decided that I wanted to collect my Sephora birthday gift and get one thing (wanted 2 but the sale code only works on sale items and my items weren't on sale, so I took one item out). First online order with Sephora-want it to go well. Grocery order with Voila is also planned for early next week, with goal of using Grocery Gateway mid-month for produce and pantry restock plus maybe a cake (if it can be delivered, it'll save me the effort). Three recipes are on my mind for making next week-good to have meal ideas rolling for a change, as I want to try a quinoa mango bean salad and plain cooked quinoa does not interest me.

Freezing rain is expected later today--all the GTA and Hamilton forecasters were talking about the rain/sleet mix coming through. I rather liked yesterday's mild cold day with mostly melted snow.

Will see if a walk can be done around lunchtime to enjoy the air and maybe spot treasures. 2020 was a meagre year in terms of other money finds. Just glad it is over.

[Giseledta]

happy new year!!
Thank you @SassyAshley for starting the thread


i have a few bucket list items on my list. i want to learn how to crochet... that is one of them.

ok. budget. i have a pretty good plan in place . alot will be reducing debt. we have more then i am fond of.

grocery wise... i am keeping mine at what it is ... for jan till april... then i will be eating down the pantry and returning the pantry to normal levels, right now i am keeping it very full. this is for covid. and for working through the issues ( supply chain) that comes with covid.



ok. today.. plan is turkey.. with sides. youngest will eat leftover new years eve stuff. she is not a fan of turkey.

i have a bunch of felt that i am makinginto felt food for the daycare. for when i can use non plastic stuff again. ( covid issues)
i may touch base with my lady who is makingme some grimm ( wood) stuff. nah, prob do that tomorrow.

have fun everyonw

[GoodBoy]

Happy 2021!!

I was going to start a bucket list but realized what do I need with so many buckets!!

[lilo0003]

Happy 2021 all. I finally made it to a beach in 2020, it was Lake Ontario but still. We spent New Year’s Eve doing a long walk on the beach by the moonlight with the two other couples that we always spend new year’s with. So this way we could still safely see each other. We had planned to do the lights in the park but it looked pretty busy. Savings plan is the same, really driving towards retirement with is now 5 yrs away. I am also very happy that this is the year, Monday in fact that we will have our TFSA fully funded, we were slow to start so it feels good to have done

[SassyAshley]

Good Afternoon Everyone,
Day to Day laundry is going and I am going to be realistic Bedding & Couch Blankets are not getting done today. I am still struggling with sleep. I thought it was the full moon and who knows maybe it was and the after effects are still lingering but I am waking up multiple times a night and am not getting into a deep sleep and any little thing is waking me up.

This mixed with the fact I have yet another headache, I really wish I could figure out why my weather headache have been so bad this past year. I always know now when weather is coming in. But I just took something as it seems to be getting worse so hopefully it will go away.

Dinner tonight will be Meatloaf (pulled from the freezer, I love having homemade pre prepped food in the freezer because let's be honest if we had to make a Meatloaf it would not have happened today), Mashed Potato Bake to use up leftover Mashed Potatoes we have in the fridge and will heat up some leftover Roasted Garlic & Parm Butternut Squash. Simple dinner but using up stuff from the fridge at the same time, so win win.

Hope everyone is having a great day

[Giseledta]

just ordered some crochet hooks, and yarn. first projects planned. yep... learning to crochet.

[SassyAshley]

@Giseledta I taught myself how to crochet on Youtube. Hope you enjoy