January 2022 Frugal Chat, here we go again.

[Frugalbigmama]

I really wanted Pizza Hut tonight.

Decided on leftovers in fridge with a few spring rolls in the air fryer. I am satisfied and saved the money/grease and extra calories because I would have eaten 1 slice to many!! I cut up a gala apple later for a snack.

[SassyAshley]

Today was a blah/work day.

I realized part way through the week that I was supposed to work this weekend. But someone needed to upload some files before I could do my part and I was not sure they were going to do their part in time for me to get mine done over the weekend. They did so I was able to get my part done. I did not want to work the weekend but since my schedule is so full this week if I could not do my work on the weekend I probably would have to work super long hours to keep up.

I did get the hand dishes done, that is it.

Dinner was homemade burgers from the freezer with Oven Fries Poutine.

I got my meal plan done well I was waiting for files to upload. I will prep some veggies tomorrow so I can just dump them into the slow cooker and cook. We already pre cut our meats before we freeze them so as long as I pull them out and defrost we are good to go. I am going to take it one step further and I am going to prep the sauce too so I can just dump and cook. This way if I have limited time between training session we will not get off track for dinners.

I will prep some "snacky" type lunches tomorrow, that if needed I can snack and won't miss lunch. Will also make some baked oatmeal so I can just heat and eat when I have early training sessions.

I need to have better eating habits when things are super busy with work. I have a habit of living off tea when I get busy and when I do that I do not feel my best. I also need to bring back snacking, back with I worked in the office I would have containers or fruit or veggies on my desk to snack on since I started working at home I stopped doing this.

I will need to find time to go grocery shopping this, not quite sure when that will happen. I feel like I need more hours in the week but I know if I get through the next couple of weeks, keep to my routine I will get back on top of everything and things won't feel so overwhelming.

[Giseledta]

we budget 300 per month for both. 75.00 for water....

RE: Hydro costs
@SassyAshley- Your monthly cost isn't really bad considering you heat with Hydro. I know for myself when house shopping electric heat scared me so I wouldn't even consider it.

Lived in this house for almost 12 years and when the kids were little the entire house was in bed by 9pm lol so Hydro was under $40 a month (I remember asking my neighbour how much theirs was (they had teens at the time) and she told me close to $200/mth!!!! ( subdivision with similar houses)

So I budget $200 a month for Hydro and Gas (Enbridge) And $75/month for Water and Sewer. I have for a long time. It was always less over the year and I would build up a credit on the accounts so when months were high it would work out (Hydro cost more in summer because of A/C and Enbridge bill higher in winter )

Jan 01 2021 I decided to set up a savings account named "Utilities" and each month I would pay the bill and transfer the extra to the account and sometimes I would need to transfer some back to pay a bill if it was over the $200/75 monthly bill.
So as of Dec 31, 2021 the amount in the account totaled $414.12. I am going to leave it and continue and do the same this year and see how we end the year. (since we know all costs are going up)

[lizzie bargain]

I just looked at our records and we paid 277.42 per month for gas, electric, water and sewer in 2021. We heat with gas and our winters can be pretty cold. We do not have tiered billing-yet. I just got back from No Frills and I am finally starting to see some empty shelves I keep reading about-not to mention mushrooms were $4.99 per lb-no thanks.

[coupon girl]

When i was in rexall getting my pills yesterday, a sign was up "sorry no eggs" in their fridge section .

[Giseledta]

My oldest works at a shoppers... people are not understanding supply chain... that if truckers cant get through... no products on the shelves... if workers are down with covid... no products on the shelves... even if the trucks come local... if person A .. B ... or C is not working due tcovid... they cant get the product
Its not the fault of the customer service person... if they had the product... they would give it to you.

ok that is my rant for the day.


I am working on my RCSS list... next weekend is the bonus points event . i am really really hoping for a good one.

on track for today...
carrot cake muffins
vacume.
clean the kitchen.
work on laundry and dc plans forthe week.
and i have a class tonight for Childcare. first of the year.
Natchos for supper.

[SassyAshley]

I saw posted on Facebook that our Wal-Mart ran out of meat Thursday night. I have also seen many people saying if you go in evening to Costco they are running out select types of meats as well. Another post said our No Frill is limiting meat purchases again, when I was there Wednesday they were only limiting the meat that was one sale.

Busy morning getting all of the Kitchen things done. So far I have made, Banana Muffins, my bananas went from green and hard to banana bread in what felt like 2 days. Apple Oatmeal to have for Breakfast this week. Cut all the veggies I could for the my slow cooker meals, will still need to cut mushrooms and potatoes on the day I make those recipes but everything else is done. Sauce for Slow Cooker Meals are done.

Emptied and reload the dishwash, did the hand dishes and did dishes as I work so the Kitchen is clean.

I still need to make Dinner Rolls, Peanut Butter Dip & Cucumber Spread. As well I would like to make something for dessert but not sure what I want to make.

Happy Sunday Everyone.

[Giseledta]

Sassy- i played on pinterest.. i think i am going to make strawberry cinnamon rolls... it just sounds amazing

[Angela273]

This morning I printed Piller's coupons from websaver.

Last night while tucking twin girl into bed I discovered a large hole in the top seam of her quilt. Ds enjoys hand sewing, so he helped me fix it. I also mended a couple of other items while listening to my audio book.

I don’t know what happened to my couple of larger canning jars during the move. I’m glad Dh kept the recently emptied pickle jar. I’m currently soaking alfalfa seeds to sprout. I haven’t grown any in about a year. My kitchen window sill with the grow light now has a fern house plant, green onions in a cup (since November), butter crisp lettuce (new purchase from the coop), and now alfalfa sprouts.

Second load of laundry is going. Dh still needs to wash his work clothes. Washed the kids clothes yesterday. They help fold and put it away.

[SassyAshley]

Got all my food prep done except I forgot I had planned to make snack mix. I was going to make it now but the buns will be ready before the snack mix is done so maybe after dinner. I also did not get the mixed berry muffins done, but I added those to my to-do-list before I realized my bananas were at the banana bread stage. I figured 2 batches of muffins would not happen but left it there just in case.

Dinner Rolls for tomorrow night are in the bread machine, should be done in about 10 minutes, then they need to proof and bake.

Kitchen is clean all of the dishes are done, even the ones that could have gone in the dishwasher. I was on a roll and just did them all.

Took the garbage out.

I was thinking Lasagna Zucchini Boats for dinner but when I said that I got a face so plan B is enchiladas. I really need No Frills to put Tortillas on sale, my stash is getting very low. After tonight we will be out of whole wheat and we prefer the whole wheat for enchiladas, the white one get soggy. But even my white are getting low.

In a good place going into this week, the only thing that is up in the air is when will I grocery shop but not going to worry about that right now. We have enough on hand to get through this week if needed.

[coupon girl]

Well decided to run into fortinos (double masked)to get hot food wings for hubby and fries (had a points offer) plus i had a piece of costco meat pie my son gave me for me -nice meal .They make really hearty chciken pot pies yummmmm.

I went around the store and grabbed a few items about 14 -wow the shelves were pretty empty in the yogurt and pillsbury section,chips ,candy ,soups a lot of isles had so much less product -so it is happening .

Used one cpn on my siggis yogurt paid 2.99 after cpn and checkout51 and got a healty steamer 3.49-1.00 checkout51=2.49 for future meal for me .

noticed pears and apples were up in price (mind you it was fortinos )got my tarter sauce i couldnt get online at walmart.

Now i will cash out of checkout51 $42.00 for me .

[cath007]

I hope @Ciel21 is ok.I have not seing her posting for a while now???

[endi2000]

we budget 300 per month for both. 75.00 for water....

Wow - until we moved to ‘the country’ in August, i had NEVER seen water etc prices more than $40 or so. Our water is $96/month and due to go up in 2022. Plus, apparently we have to pay a fee for testing every so often. Looking at the comments here about the $75/mo for water - I am not quite so shocked (we are in a small county - with a low population - so I figure we are paying for amenities that the big cities have thought up)


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[lilo0003]

I made the chicken lo mien dish @crafter posted last week. It was awesome and we had left overs. I liked that it was 1 chicken breast for the whole dish. I will never convert my family to vegetarian but we all agree to reduce our meat consumption and one day a week we do go meatless. Then I made a batch of chicken noodle soup so my lunches are ready for the week. Tonight it’s breakfast for dinner.
the gaps in all my stores have been cereal. DHs vector is coming back but at 6.00 a box he can wait. Only one kid likes cereal so he has just been eating what we had in hand so it’s not a bad thing to have no stock or sale prices. I spent $40.00 this week for groceries but $12.00 was my favourite coffee creamer on sale and it’s a seasonal flavour so I am good until April. Shoppers had lots of eggs so I took advantage of the Burnbrae sale and as soon as my receipt is approved I can can out Caddle.

[Angela273]

Worked on some of the meal plans.
Saturday - KFC
Sunday - home made pizza
Monday - taco biscuit bake with salad
Tuesday - breakfast sausage, home made waffles, strawberries & whipped cream
Wednesday - home made fried rice with steamed California mix veggies
Thursday - speghitini, tomato sauce, pork steaks