December 2021 Frugal Chatter thread-Opportunity knocks...

[Frugalbigmama]

Happy Saturday! My mom was happy I went down to visit her. We tried to go for free breakfast at the casino at 10 am but the restaurant wasn't opening till noon. (staff shortages!) So I took her to Costco and then went back for breakfast.

I stopped at the Walmart for eggs since mine was out when I went on Friday. Then stopped at Food Basics. Grabbed 6 cans of the pasta sauce on for .99 (I always add my own veggies and beef etc) They have an expiry date of 2024. I think I am going to take a good inventory of sauce/pasta/canned tomatoes tomorrow and then stock up accordingly to try and beat the price increases.
GT I grabbed 10lb potatoes, bag of bananas and a sweet and sour sauce with a 2023 expiry date. Something else I will see if DS likes and if so will go buy a bunch.

I am noticing still good sale prices on stuff but not as often. Regular prices were always bad but now just so much worse.
DS asked for Helmans for his turkey sandwiches. I paid $4.49 at Walmart 2 weeks ago for the squeeze bottle (which we have never tried before but we love it) I looked at it this week and the price is now $5.49! (the walmart near my mothers is $4.27) I was going to buy a back up Himilayen salt grinder but I think it was cheaper at my Walmart so will check that out next time)

Can't beat the $1.50 bread at Dollar Tree. We have 2 and only one sells bread. I'm just going to have to make sure I pop in there more often (DS son gets a weekly allergy shot near there so can do it then) I will go tomorrow and hopefully they have lots and will buy a few extra for the freezer.

We are Smart Canucks! as a group we can spot the deals and help each other out

[Giseledta]

yes!!!!! we need to spot deals and spread the word!!!!!!!!! someone once said to me.... friends dont let friends pay full price.


i am full on battling grocery increase... my choices are... decress the quality of food provided... - nope not happening., increase costs to my DC parents.... really, really , really dont want to . or .... work hard to battle the increase.
I am choosing to battle.

[cath007]

Have a good week end

[Ciel21]

@Giseledta See if you figure out for what's in season in terms of local/frozen produce (vegetables/fruit i.e. how many different kinds of apples you can use in muffins/snacks/meals during winter) to help with food costs. You know what kids like and don't like (textures are another variation on the food issue so perhaps your family can help with spiralizing/blending/chopping/grating to help you reduce time spent on prep). Challenge will be in any special-foods required for dc kids with dietary needs (for health/by parental request).

Can the regular Giant Tiger shoppers verify if the chain is still honouring 3-cent rebate per reusable bag if customers provide them for staff to fill? I found mention of the program on GT's How to Save More page. Wish I knew that from the outset, as those cents can multiply for a food shop when there are specials or several clothing items shop!
I ask because remember how many stores last year (not offering rebates) would not let customers place their reusable bags on the conveyor belts for bagging due to concerns how clean one's bags might be/germs due to the COVID-19 pandemic (while capacity limits were smaller during the spring of 2020)?I want to know from the GT regulars what their stores are doing with the bag rebates (i.e. bags must not be regular plastic shopping bags but ones obviously meant to last for several weeks/months of regular use?)

[Ciel21]

$966/12 equals $80.50 monthly hike in food prices for 2022. I know in Hamilton, water and wastewater rates go up every January and equal billing plan amounts can fluctuate if utility determines current use is more than use for same month last year. Already, hydro EBP is up $3/mo and gas supplier if rates have gone up for the current quarter is collecting the increase on top of EBP amount. At least Ontario drivers licences and photo id card rates will not go up for a year (small thanks there). I anticipate that transit fares will go up 25cents by late summer in Hamilton; might be earlier in other GTA cities.

I am literally spending around $50-60 for bandages monthly (between Fortinos and Walmart runs) currently and I expect that sum to go up about $10 (if prices go over $6 per box of bandages; $5.92-5.97 at Walmart currently). The food price hike means impulse shopping needs a $10 limit per trip (I can easily go $20-30 over intended buys in extras/treats or say buying 3 boxes of kitchen garbage bags in one trip in the expectation I won't have to buy any for two months). I cannot always rely on timing of deals since I plan to wait out snowy/wet weather for late fall/most of winter. Staying away from online grocery shopping with delivery fees(though it can be great when it goes well for heavy items).

Early January-want extra pants and at least 2-3 easy care short sleeve tops to facilitate quick laundering (likely will have to budget for new store purchases as local thrift store has been disappointing this year). Will wear out my runners until spring (have noticed two small tears developing in the pair today). Plan to get new photo ID card ($35) as well, weather permitting soon after my HST credit arrives.

It sounds like the rain has returned tonight. The winds calmed down around 11pm. Whew. The branch aftermath won't be fun to see in the morning!

[lilo0003]

yes!!!!! we need to spot deals and spread the word!!!!!!!!! someone once said to me.... friends dont let friends pay full price..

This is my SC tag line. I put it in there when I joined all those years ago and it’s especially true in this thread.

[flemeth]

Good morning all

We had no power yesterday for more than 3 Hours.

Yes with the grocery price going up . We all have to try and look for great sales. On SC we are always sharing our deals. Guess we need more members to do so no matter how little it is.

I find groceries are more expensive when you have vegetarian in the family . Also buying fresh is costly. So let’s keep on sharing the deals

[flemeth]

@Ciel21 yes Giant Tiger is still honouring the 3 cents for reusable bags when I was there last week

[lilo0003]

I have really been focused on maximizing my Air Miles and last week I was down to 68 AM and thus week I am at 500. I took advantage of all the bonus Shell offers that made sense for us as well as the Sobeys offer last week to get 100 AM when you buy 150.00. I use them to shop at Freshco. I also watch the gift card thread because at Christmas there is usually something I need that I can use a gift card to buy. Last week I needed stuff from H & M so bought the gift cards at SDM and then Friday received 20000 PCO for 100.00 in gift cards.

[SassyAshley]

I do think Groceries are going to be a challenge next year and we will see increase but how much someone's bill goes up will depend. I do see our bill going up a bit but will we feel increase fully no.

Outside of this community I find so many people are shocked by the way our household handles groceries and meal planning. Or in some cases even my own family thinks I am insane but the reality is I just look at it as a lifestyle.

Our meal plans are based on what we have on hand and what is on sale vs making a meal plan and buying what is needed. If broccoli is on sale we will include it in our meal plan but I would never choose a meal and pay $3.99 because I need it for a recipe.

There are very few things we just buy because we need them, namely the only things I can think of are Milk & Velotine. Velotine never goes on sale but because I always buy it at No Frills, I get PC offers for it so I only stock up when I have an offer.

That is one thing I notice with some family member is they just have a list they buy every week. No matter the price they always buy a bag of Grapes and a package of Strawberries. Where is for us our fruit and veggies for the week is whatever is one sale, on the rare rare occasion we cannot find any on sale we like, we use frozen that week.

If needed I will expand our pantry to make sure we can stock up on deals.

We have also gone back to making things homemade vs buying. Growing up possibly to save money there were so many things we made, we did not buy. In the last 5 years or so with both of us working full-time and my hours being what they are we went back to buying them. Now we are back to making it ourselves. We will make breads and buns, I just bought more big cans of Tomatoes to make our own Pasta Sauce & Pizza Sauce. I just bought 2 more big bags of flour to keep our baking going.

It is funny years ago, I had this theory in my mind that I wanted to get to a place where I could just go shopping and buy what we need. But then I realized why would I ever do that. It in my mind is wasting money, I constantly see it when I am grocery shopping I spent $30 and walked out with 4 bags of groceries the person in front of me spent $100 and only has 2 bags.

It will be a challenge but that is life and all we can do is share the deals we find. Optimize any cost savings we can find.

[cath007]

Yes i am very affraid by the cost rising of the grocery...

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
It was a slow start to the morning, I slept in again. I woke just before 5, was going to get up but I fell back asleep and did not wake up 8 am. I feel like I overslept which has made it a slow morning.

I want Pasta for dinner but have not made Pasta Sauce so going to check the freezers and see if maybe just maybe I can find some in the freezer. Thinking a Lazy Lasagna would be good.

Need to finish dealing with all the cardboard and regain my Kitchen. There just seems to be a stuff everywhere that has not made it to it's home so just a general tidy is needed.

I need to dehydrate these marshmallows, I just cleaned off the sideboard so I can setup the dehydrator. I do not want to take up the counter space all afternoon.

Starting to feel my ambition now so going to see what I can get done.

Happy Sunday Everyone

[Frugalbigmama]

Good Morning! Left at 10:30 and just got home a little while ago. Put away the groceries.

Bought more eggs at Walmart- so we have 5 dozen plus 2 single eggs to use up by Jan 24th. Shouldn't be hard with DS off on school break for 2 weeks. Maybe I should buy more....
At Dollar tree spent $4.50 on 3 bread items (grain bread, bagels and burger buns) We have chicken and beef burgers in the freezer to use up this week. At Food Basics bought more pasta sauce/ beans and tomatoes. Going to empty the cupboard and take inventory.
No Frills- they had shrimp on for $1.97- said more then 20 per package. Youngest DS and I are the only ones that like it. I bought 3. Will make it Tuesday night and if we like then will go buy more. The 6pk romaine is $5.97 this week at RCSS (was over $7 last week) so bought one and will plan meals to use it up and not waste any. (We did well last time!)
Happy with my shopping. Going to try and use up stuff from the house freezer this week for meals.

[SassyAshley]

I think it was @Ciel21 mentioned clementines now coming in cardboard crates. I got some at No Frills that came in cardboard crates but noticed Friday when I was at Wal-Mart there's are still in the old wooden crates. Guess it depends on the supplier.

[Frugalbigmama]

Sorted my beans/tomatoes and pasta sauce. I have 1 can of beans that expired in Nov so will use them up this week.
I emptied a top shelf in the kitchen completely and was able to toss a bunch of things and a few put aside to think about. Now all the red pasta sauce is up there- expiry dates 2023-2024. Lots of selection (tins/marinara sauce from Costco my sister bought me and other jar sauce. On a different shelf is DS's garlic alfredo (10 jars). We have lots of pasta too. Since the expiry date is 2024 I think I will grab more sauce and a few bags of pasta. If I don't feel we are using up I have lots of time to donate.

I put a load of laundry in the washer and will hang it to dry ( I just fluff the jeans in the dryer once dry) Makes everything last longer and keep their colour.