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

[SassyAshley]

Still snowing here but it does not look like there is a lot of accumulation which I am good with. I will have to spend some time tomorrow shovelling and digging out cars.

We got an email that as long as the weather holds out this week (it is supposed to snow or rain most days) that they are trying to find someone to come fix our stairs. Turns out the original company that did the work said they completed what was included in the original quote and no additional work would be done. They did submit a new quote to "fix" our stairs but the quote to "fix" the stairs was higher than other companies were quoting to replace the stairs as most said they could not be fixed.

Mom is supposed to go out tomorrow, we will see, she does not have her snow tires yet. That is her Christmas present I am getting them put on for her later this week.

I placed a Wal-Mart pick-up order. We have used this service a few times I do not think I would use it for weekly shopping but at Christmas when I mainly need what I call pantry items (non-perishables) it is nice. Mom will pick this up for me tomorrow. It is mostly Chocolate Chips, Chocolate Graham Crumbs, Crackers, Pretzels, Plant Based Butter and then I added a few more items that were on sale as I had a code to get $15 off if I spent $75 and since I was only $8 short it made sense.

I should now have everything but a few items I will need to get the week of Christmas as they are perishable. The gifts I ordered should be in this week as well so for once I am feeling on top of Christmas which is a nice change as normally I am scrambling.

Although I do still feel my anxiety creeping in but I think that is a mixture of the snow arriving and the holidays. My anxiety is not happy but I am hoping if I can be on top of everything this Christmas it will help my anxiety see we got this. As for snow, we live in Canada and I just have to hope on my travel days it does not snow.

Tonight's dinner is Spaghetti and Meatballs. Pulled Homemade Meatballs from the Freezer and just cooking up the pasta. I made Cheesy Garlic Naan to go with it. I was going to make a Salad but I have had a Caesar Salad the last 2 nights so might skip the Salad tonight.

[Frugalbigmama]

I needed to go back out to Foodland to get the chicken (Strips etc 800 g boxes_ on 5 for $20. I didn't feel like going out but would be mad if I missed the deal since its nice to have on hand for kids.
Couldn't find them anywhere so asked cashier and he took me to the spot and said any that were 800g. So got 3 buttermilk strips and 2 patties (will be perfect for chicken parm for DS!!!) They rang in at $9.99 so they over-rode the price to $3.99! Deal!!
Then decided to go back to RCSS to get the 6pk romaine for $5.99 since I felt like salad with my dinner. Made a nice salad and we will make sure to use the lettuce up this week. I will make DS nice sandwiches for school with lots of lettuce! And we have all the fixings for ceaser salad so will make the kids that since they both like.

No more groceries needed! We are good for awhile and have lots of fresh fruit/bread etc

[coupon girl]

Just ordered my daughter her favourite perfume from sephora and stuck to my list nothing for me .I did look thou .I am loving online shopping instead of going to the mall.

My dear daughter has had a few rough years mentally ,so i think this will be a nice gift perfume for yourself .

I just got a call from my nefews daughter ,she wants to bring my brother /wife from london ,ontario next monday for a visit .So i will pick up a small nice xmas gift for them .

[SassyAshley]

@coupon girl , I agree with online shopping. I was not big on malls before the pandemic and now I just prefer to stay away. Our mall always seemed busy no matter when you went.

I am enjoying not running around as much this year. It is nice to not be going all over the place trying to find things.

[cath007]

Hi all !!! I listened some christmas movies today and after went for a small walk with father but i got tired very fast...grrr still not strong
have a good evening and night

[barbis9]

barbis- nice deals at costco ,how is their kirkland k-cups ?I dont drink coffee but my hubby does i did put an amazon order in last night and got 72 k-cups of maxwell for, $25.07 mind you i will wrap 12 of them for my son,wife as a small xmas gift.

I also splurged and bought ashlyn a "addams" family colouring book to go with her top ,a few more dollars than i wish to pay but hey it is a gift .She was a delight to have here overnight the 2 smallest are more work ,but hey that is life .

I may pop over to bed bath and beyond as they have towels on for $5.00.

@coupon girl Kirkland coffee is good and if you don't like it, Costco will take it back. My friend said that Starbucks sometimes makes coffee for the Kirkland brand. I got 120 pods with discount for $29.99! My fav is Timothy's breakfast blend but for that price, I can be persuaded.

Are those bath towels for $5.00 at Bed, Bath and Beyond?

[barbis9]

SA-I get tired just reading your posts re shopping, food prep, food storage, cooking etc. And I only work part time! It is all I can keep track of to have a small pantry and a fridge freezer-and still I lose stuff in there! I find the less I have the easier it is-I still stock up a bit when I see a good price. I think I would be too overwhelmed tracking/organizing so much food for just the 2 of us!

@lizzie bargain I agree. There is no way I would be able to do all of that. I have a tendency to buy more than I can eat but I'm getting better at it.

[Ciel21]

AM-felt I should not have bothered to get up. Had leftover pot pie for breakfast and Perrier. Back to bed where it was warm and cozy. Got up around noon to take out garbage, push snow off walks (no one else dealt with the slushy stuff) and discovered Bro put more grass into the green bin cart (he was working on the tractor yesterday). I lit into him-the nerve of him doing that a 2nd time this year (pending a nasty note in large black Sharpie marker on the cart lid itself, I'm furious). He acted nonchalant while my temper was flaring. Had to tip cart over to get grass out. I did not need that aggravation when I have more pain to deal with.

PM-just doing what I could to minimize any movement from making my pain worse. Definitely at 2 bandage changes per day but it seems 3x/day is going to be necessary. Grateful I have enough first aid supplies for most of the week. I did spend last night looking at a baby gift registry list, noticing some items are not avail. online and looked at 4-5 other online sites to see if the items are in stock or have similar items. $$$ for gear and realized I cannot afford much even if I were to chase that $50 OneCard4All gift card offer at Sobeys. Will be satisfied I have sent out the gift box I had put together earlier in 2021(+1 for advanced planning!); registrants have lots of family and friends that are likely to buy the group gift items.

Feel that tonight needs some paper chain crafting and turning a free magazine into a tree for decor. A cup of tea is required-it will be green tonight.

Supper was cooked rice with seaweed and corn mixed with a tin of tuna. Also enjoyed a couple of clementines.

Lentils will be getting lots of rotation in the meals for the next 5-6 weeks. Advent fast started (Mom is observing) today and I'd like to ensure I sometimes have something she can eat that is different from her core 6-7 meals she relies on for this time. She literally has days when she too wants a change in food or just does not want to cook. Since she bought so much dried fruit, a compote with tea and the fruit seems like an easy stovetop dessert to make.

Tomorrow: oatmeal for breakfast plus tea, figure out if shopping (finalize list tonight) in am is doable; raking in pm as I expect the snow melted by noon. Or I will be stuck with leaves underfoot for a few months. Check library hold status for dvd 2 (dvd 1 is waiting but notification came on Sat) and plan Tuesday pickup.

Need to buy quinoa this week as it offers a change from rice (boring at times) and lentils (which do taste sort of like peas). Goal-figure out a tex-mex veggie rice stuffed pepper dish. I get tired of salt because Mom is heavy-handed with it and I don't always add salt to rice or lentils, but I do use different seasonings (need to get a new bottle of herbes de Provence-nearly empty!) for flavour.

Maybe there's a chance to watch a dvd tonight or view The Equalizer on the tv...

[barbis9]

I'm sure if I created a business account (not that I have the $$$ to incorporate), that 8pg pdf on terms would apply to my shipping AND CRA would like to know what my business is (and HST status). Did not realize there was a rate change in sending a parcel. Only have one parcel left for when the time comes, it can get sent (not for awhile but I have some space now!). I did see a mailer card of some kind on the floor of Shoppers but it was too low for me to get (bending is an issue unless I have room to crouch down). However, I wondered if Canada Post put out another parcel discount offer this month? Forgot to see if there was new stamp catalogue booklet in the display rack.

@Ciel 21 I registered when it was called Venture One and CRA never contacted me. I didn't need to incorporate anything. I just wanted a discount on shipping

[coupon girl]

barbis-the towels were small bath towels at bed bath and beyond ,they were kinda crappy as i was gonna give them as a gift to son /wife but changed my mind .

Thanks for the tip on kirkland coffee maybe when son asks me to go with him in the new year i will get some for hubby.

[barbis9]

Good Morning,
It has started to snow here, I know we live in Canada, I know it is November but I am still not ready for snow. I am so not a winter person.

I finished my Christmas list last night. I did start to go a little overboard and adding to my sensible plan, I found a ton of great ideas and wanted to make them all. But I did a double take of my list and have kept it to what I feel is a sensible amount. Today I will create my grocery list, most of what I need is on sale at Wal-Mart this week so I think I might do a pick-up order.

Today I needed to tidy up my Chest Freezer, I have some bread products I need to get in plus I feel like there should be more room. Sometimes it feels like keeping a chest freezer organized is a full-time job. The stand-up freezer is much easier to keep organized but our stand-up freezer frosts up so we only put vacuum sealed products in the stand-up freezer.

Happy Sunday Everyone

@SassyAshley how long have you had your stand up freezer for? A family member has thought about buying one but I don't like the sound of the frosting up part. Is that from it being opened a lot or just the nature of the unit?

[barbis9]

Along with the snow this morning I woke up with a migraine headache :-( Thankfully I have medication that makes it more bearable but my whole day was a write off. I slept for most of the day, and my sweet rescue dog didn't even make a sound.

The Burlington library upgraded their system which has been driving me crazy - a whole bunch of books that were not to be released ended up being sent to my local branch. And now all 20 are due. So tomorrow if I feel ok I'll be returning and re-reserving them again.

[barbis9]

@Ciel21 re clearance section at Shoppers. I was told that the clearance section wouldn't be available as they need the extra space for Christmas product displays at my local store.

[lilo0003]

Ended up staying in today. Did some meal planning and made some freezer meals and made a lemon square for Dh. I posted a bunch of stuff to give away and I picked up three free tubs of frosting. She was in my area so I just stopped by when I was on my walk. One of the items I am giving away is going to someone in the neighbourhood so I said I would drop off on my walk Monday. I love the free cycle economy. And it was a no spend day so that’s a huge plus. This is my last 5 day work week for the year as I have at least one vacation day every week in December. So excited.

[SassyAshley]

@barbis9

Hope you feel better.

We have had our freezer 7 or 8 years. It was bought when we moved into this house and we did not have good luck with our appliances. It turns out the person who sold us our appliances did not actually work in the appliance department and a number of specs and features we requested and were told our appliances had they do not. When we went back to the company that we bought them from we were told basically it was our fault as we should have known they were not an appliance salesperson and insisted an appliance salesperson help us.

Our freezer was supposed to be frost free, it is not. The company we bought it from would not admit this, it was not until we had a local appliance repair person in that we found this out. With that being said before we buy a replacement I will be doing some research as I have heard Frost Free freezers are not good for long term storage because of the cycling on and off. It can effect products in the freezer.

We have to defrost ours once to twice a year, honestly we generally defrost once a year but should twice a year as when we defrost it, it is bad. But it is also a pain to defrost so we put it off.

@SassyAshley how long have you had your stand up freezer for? A family member has thought about buying one but I don't like the sound of the frosting up part. Is that from it being opened a lot or just the nature of the unit?