November 2021 Frugal Chatter thread (& reading the weather skies)

[SassyAshley]

After I was done with my meeting this morning I set my timer and went down the basement. WOW it is cold, probably does not help we still have no turned on our heat because I still do not have the insulation and just found out I won't be able to pick it up this week.

I feel like the pantry is really starting to come together. I did find a few things that are just past their expiration date we need to use so I will see what I can make with it this weekend.

Mom does not want the Roasted Cauliflower Soup for dinner so I making it for a late lunch instead and dinner will be Chicken Enchiladas.

Still need to shovel the snow, trying to talk myself into going outside, it is going to be cold.

Got an email today, my schedule this week has been flipped a bit so now I need to shuffle some stuff around and move some stuff to next week. But, this might work in my favour to help me get more done around the house.

[SassyAshley]

Ugg shovelling snow was worse than I expected, there was a lot of snow.

The stair drama continues, Because the stairs are not level trying to shovel them is so hard. Because Mom has issues with her mobility I have always done my best to keep the stairs clear, I scrap them down. But because they are not level I cannot get them to come clean.

Also our walkway is now a muddy mess, the mudd mixed with the snow has made it slick like ice. I am literally scared trying to leave my house that I will fall. Now with the snow I cannot walk across the lawn to avoid our walkway.

I have tried to scrap the mud off but since our walkway is now missing bricks either there are no bricks to scrap the mud off or I get the mud off but the next rain the mud comes back.

I went to clean off the cars and Mom's car won't start. I think it is the battery, I think the last time she drove her car was after I fell and we needed a new kettle and I could not drive myself. I am hoping it is the battery and we can just get it boosted. I asked her if she was going to deal with it tonight but she said no, she will deal with it tomorrow. To add to this fun we have to have our cars moved tomorrow for them to come and plow so hopefully we can easily get it taken care of in the morning before we need to move the cars.

Ugg I am getting super stressed now.

[Frugalbigmama]

I have had a very very productive work day!!!!

And the sun is shining!!! Life is good!

[Ciel21]

Only frost landed on the ground and containers at the curb. No snow. But the mid-afternoon was gray-so many gray bands of snow but nothing fell. Tea has been made and drunk at least twice so far today. I probably have room for a third cup around 9pm. Tea stash is getting close to depletion---a running grocery list has been compiled.

One side of street got all of its containers emptied or collected. Our side still hasn't had the garbage collected. Might be a truck breakdown or crews were swamped with yard waste collection.

Some of the Bay kids' and babies' apparel deals listed in their Black Friday flyer are also on in the current week's flyer (dresswear, some clothing, pants).

Mom's CAA Magazine arrived. I don't know what new benefit (mentioned in President's column) is now provided to members, but I do know that 2022 membership fees are frozen. My Pace insurance program continues and CAA will continue to reimburse members for reduced driving (I assume there's a future cheque on the way...)

Watched the Waffles+Mochi Holiday Feast. It seemed like a way to show how hosting can go wrong without food but works out in the end. Personally, Waffles should have grabbed all those freezer treats peppering the ice outside and brought them indoors. I don't understand how the guests helped to make the feast. You might chuckle at the snowcone bits. Mochi seemed to have the better time.

I abstained from further raking. Needed a rest day and noticed a lower leg has some kind of issue. The ouches are stacking up!

[Ciel21]

PC Insider's Report $1 off coupon expires this Thursday!

I haven't been in Fortinos this week to see what coupons are on the Coupon Zone board.

Almost forgot-tomorrow, The Textile Museum (Toronto) has a mend your knits Zoom session in the afternoon (4-5:30pm ET). It's free. Might be of interest to SCers who have a fave knit to mend. Don't know if session is filled. Here's the link: https://textilemuseum.ca/event/susta...mending-knits/

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
I took out my stress yesterday on some dishes I needed to wash. Who ever thought the day would come where I would find cleaning relaxing LOL.

After taking a few deep breaths I have to remember Mom tackles things differently than I do. If it was me, I would have been dealing with the car last night to have it done and dealt with. Mom is more of a needs a deadline person and for her needing to have her car moved for plowing is her deadline so she will deal with it today because the car has to be moved today.

What can I say, I hate doing things last minute and when I have to do things last minute it stresses me out.

Sent another email to property management about our stairs and lack of bricks in our walkway, no answer yet. They think we are overreacting but funny we are overreacting but you won't try to walk up and down our stairs or even come down out walkway because as they pointed out "oh it is muddy, we will just stand back here." Grrr

I am just trying to focus on what I can do, what I can control and not stress about what is out of my control (not my strong suit).

I do feel like I am making good progress in the basement, although I kind of feel like the pile of food that needs to be moved into the pantry is breeding. Now I am not against that free food is always welcome. It just feels like I keep bringing bins over but the pile is not getting any smaller. As well I am trying to condense the pantry a bit, normally we have 3 sets of shelves but so far I only have 2 in the pantry room because I need to insulate the wall still. So I am trying to see what I can fit on just the 2 sets.

I am trying to gain some extra shelf space so I can move some stuff from upstairs downstairs. Reality is for the foreseeable future we will not be getting a wall unit for the dining room so everything that should be in the wall unit that is not for daily use needs to be moved downstairs. We have a bunch of knick knacks and Mom's depression glass which we have no where to display.

I got this, I can do this, one day at a time.

Happy Wednesday Everyone.

[coupon girl]

Morning my smallest ,youngest granddaughter cara is "4" today .Son /wife invited us over for dominoes pizza tonight and have cupcakes and celebrate with them .I cant wait i havent seen them in over a week.

Gonna rake leaves today a bit as yesterday my knee was killing me .I went to the dentist yesterday and i was right cracked filling so next week i go.
I have a bit of coverage left so it will still cost around 250.00-money is just flowing the past few months out of my house ,it started back in august with our furnace /airconditioner .Such is life.

[coupon girl]

Just booked a cyber sale at niagara on the lake for hubby and i as we got egift cards from the kids for our anniversary a few years back .This sale is on for the winter months so decided on the end of march.I dont care if it is cold ,we will have supper at the lovely italian restaurant Pieza.

It is nice to have this small get-away for one night with hubby.

[Frugalbigmama]

Just booked a cyber sale at niagara on the lake for hubby and i as we got egift cards from the kids for our anniversary a few years back .This sale is on for the winter months so decided on the end of march.I dont care if it is cold ,we will have supper at the lovely italian restaurant Pieza.

It is nice to have this small get-away for one night with hubby.

End of March should be beautiful! Something to look forward to for you

[flemeth]

@coupon girl Happy Birthday to your granddaughter Cara

[Ciel21]

With you on the last minute stress, @SassyAshley . It's bad when it's external but worse when it's coming from inside me and usually involves a lack (real or perceived) of resource (often insufficient fund$) vs a demand need. Throw in any lack of support by others who could be helping and raging Ciel21 is about to erupt...

Glad you are keeping communication going with property management. Helps to have that record should any further to issues result from stairs and walkway. Good insight on the observers standing over there!

Bright morning today but I am not feeling super-duper except for laundry. Got that going right after my tea despite the high electricity rate (when Mom is still asleep, I feel more relaxed getting certain tasks done without interference). Trying to pull myself to focus on getting a piece of mail into the mailbox later today. Haven't walked anywhere in the past week. I will give the yardwork an hour later in the day (still no help and the leaves are not going to bag themselves).

Oatmeal for breakfast with cinnamon, cocoa and honey was a winning idea! Had two apples afterwards.

Super Savers! Look for an e-mail today from Value Village for Black Friday weekend (Friday-Sunday). Depending on the spending amount, the discount offered increases.

Daycare discussions between Ontario and Canada-while other provinces have reached deals avg. $10/day for daycare (would like to know actual values/day per province just to get an idea), my gut feeling is if Ontario gets a similar deal, we are looking at $15-20/day in Ontario. Hamilton will pursue its own deal if province does not get one. I was reading a local reporter's Twitter posts from a council meeting today.

There better be something good in today's mail...if anything lands in the box!

[cath007]

Hi all,just a quick update on my surgery ,thanks god it went really well.
I have only 1 stiche and no antibiotic
I have tylenol,advil and morphine to take at separate time if I am in pain..I have some big blood caillots (sorry for the french) hopefully it will desepear
On forced holliday of life project until december 1..so maybe more time for smart canucks lol
have a good evening
the bill was more painful that the surgery in my point of view
for now I am eating apple sauce,will see tomorrow how I feel.

[flemeth]

@cath007 glad the surgery went well . Hope you feel better soon

[SassyAshley]

@coupon girl happy birthday to your granddaughter

@cath007 glad your surgery went well, praying for a quick and speedy recovery

[SassyAshley]

So in the category of: If I do not laugh I might cry.

Mom waited until about 30 minutes before we needed to have our cars out to call CAA, turns out they turned off my auto renew and my membership had been cancelled (I totally missed I was not billed). That was call #1

After checking my statements and determining I did not get billed Mom called back, Call #2. She tries to renew my membership but my credit card would not work and she ends the call.

I ask why she did not use my other card, oh did not think of that call #3, other card works my membership is renewed and a call has been put in for a boost but will take 120 minutes.

Well we are waiting for the boost, I call my credit card company as I checked and my current balance is -$1.50, yes I have a credit on my account but my card is being declined. They are claiming my card was not activated even though I thought I had use it but they could not activate my new card because you need the CCV off the old card but it is long gone it has been shredded. So I had to wait on the line for over 30 minutes to speak to someone who could not see the issue. After waiting on hold I am told now everything is fixed.

Also they showed up to boost Mom within 20 minutes, not 120 minutes and it boosted right away. Apparently they now have some sort of diagnostic on the truck and checked and told her it was not her alternator so if it happens again she may need to replace the battery.

Well all of this was going on, I was trying to fix a staff member fix their printing, only their computer would not print. Plus we have someone unexpectedly off so I am trying to cover them and felt like my head my spinning. But I decided just laugh, all is good now Mom's car is working, my membership is renewed, my credit card is fixed, still working on the print issue and hopefully the staff member will be back tomorrow so I can just be me.