March 2022 Frugal Chatter

[cath007]

Yes TGIF !!!

[Frugalbigmama]

Smoothie for lunch! Making the steak and shrimp a little early for dinner so just a simple lunch so I am hungry for dinner

[lizzie bargain]

Busy week here-my 90 year old Mum tested positive for Covid on Tuesday so I have been looking after her-with my husband helping. She is feeling better now thank goodness-and we are both fine so far-we had it last month so hopefully we can pass this time!!

I also watched my friends 4 children for 1.5 days as it was spring break and she had zoom meetings for work. I took the children swimming this morning and you kind of forget how tiring it can be-a good time was had by all however. All's well that ends well.

[barbis9]

Hi everyone ,my dear older brother passed away today .I am so glad my hubby and i went to see him last week .He just had too many other health problems besides the stroke .

So sorry to hear.

[coupon girl]

Thank you barbis for the kind words .

Lizzie glad to hear your dear mom is doing okay with covid .

[SassyAshley]

@lizzie bargain , hope your mom feels better soon and has a speedy recovery.

[SassyAshley]

Today was a work from home day, did not get all the things done but some of them done. There are a few things I need someone else to do something first and they have not done their part so I wait.

Well I was working I did the laundry. Laundry is one of my favourite household tasks to tackle well I am working. It does not take up a lot of time but makes it so I have to get up and move well I am working.

I tossed 6 Chicken Breasts in the Instant Pot to make Shredded Chicken for the Freezer. This is something we started doing last year and LOVE IT. It is so convenient to have on hand, we use it for Enchiladas, soups and various other recipes.

Mom cut up 8 Chicken Breast into chunks to go in the freezer. I prefer to use chunks over whole chicken breasts, if we use chunks we share 1 chicken breast vs is we use the whole breast we each eat one. Not having to do the prep really helps me during the week to motivate me to cook. I am a little OCD when it comes to using chicken so being able to just dump the bag makes me so happy. She also pulled the tenders off and put them in a separate bag.

Dinner which Chicken Enchiladas as I made the Shredded Chicken today, I found Passata at No Frills and we had both mushrooms and cheddar we needed to use up.

Working on my to-do-lists for the weekend, I have quite a bit to get done but I am also hopeful once I get going it won't take long. I do not have to work this weekend but I want to make sure I get some downtime.

[flemeth]

@lizzie bargain hoping your mom feels better soon and have a full recovery

[Shwa Girl]

Hi everyone ,my dear older brother passed away today .I am so glad my hubby and i went to see him last week .He just had too many other health problems besides the stroke .

Condolences to you and your family. Thank you for sharing. I remember your posts about going shopping for your brother. Sorry for your loss.

[harbie]

@coupon girl that sounds like a wonderful staycation. I love that you still found some deals while on vacation.

[harbie]

@lizzie bargain hope your mom feels better soon and that you and your Dh avoid it again

[cath007]

@lizzie bargain : so sorry to read that ,I hope your mom will have a good 100% recovery.Wishing her all the best.

[cath007]

@coupongirl : I am happy for you that you had a good trip and enjoyed it !!!

[cath007]

Good too late evening or very too earlier morning everyone!!!
I am happy and proud of myself for my cleaning evening.Altrought I should work with life project I feeled and will continue this week end the emergency to at least start my cleaning today.It was no life project this afternoon so that helped.I spend a few hours in the kitchen ,who was and still is a disaster but less worst now at least


I will need to clean the floors
Put garbages ,compost and recycles out in the appropriate bins tommorrow morning when I will go to do some errands
Continue cleaning and decluttering the counters always same pattern and some pattern repeat again will try to cut that...too many things on counter.So now I put a kitchen furniture station for cereals breads all the things,extras kitchen gadget,my kleenex,towel papers, kitchen clothes and so on so less cluttered on the counter..I shoud had done that since age but I did not had the configuration and space at the time.

Recycle a lot of things,wasted some ...always the same wasting things so that will be cuted down too
I reorganiszed another furniture too...put space in the entrance with a rug for the shoes and boots,dont have a wardrobe so frustrating

And noticed the dryline is off because they did dryer dust cleaning and the new not so new neibourg decided to put stuff at the entrance of the door of the dryline grrr

same guy who had organized his balcony

And and did put some things we dont use and take space in the locker.
Okaie time to go to bed and hoping motivation will still be there tomorrow because I have a lots to do.

I just want a clean decluterred kitchen that could be sort of my happy place and have the pleasure to bake more.!

Have a good night sorry for the long post oups.

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
Up early and going to right to work after some tea.

My pantry room is full of bags of pantry items that need to be put away. My fridge and kitchen floor are full of things that need to be broken down into portion sizes and taken to the basement. My upstairs hallway has stuff that needs to move into the basement. Lot of little things, I can hopefully knock out quickly.

Some highlights from my shopping this week:
Wal-Mart:
4 x Sugar $1.77
2 x Oil 5L $9.97
2 x Dish Soap $1.77
5 x Crisco $1.97
2 x Salted Butter $3.57
2 x Unsalted Butter $3.57

RCSS:
2 x Naturally Imperfect Mushrooms 680g $3.99
2 x Shoe Insoles $14.99
*These are so expensive but I need them so when I see them on sale I grab a couple
4 x Lasagna Noodles $1.99

No Frills:
6 x Salted Butter $3.57
*My store was out of unsalted, I really wanted 6 unsalted
4 x Yogurt $1.88 (PM Food Basics)
2 x Sweet Potatoes $0.69/lb
2 x Hot Dog Buns *Got Hot Dogs at Costco but they had no buns
3 x Passata $1.89
**These used to go on sale for a $1 each, now the normal seems to be 2/$5, I grabbed all they had
2 x Diced Tomatoes $1

Costco:
2 x Boneless Skinless Chicken Breasts
2 x Ricotta - Gone up $0.50
1 x Whole Wheat Bread (3-pack)
1 x White Bread (2-pack)
1 x Parmesan Cheese
3 x Cheddar Cheese
2 x Mozzarella
2 x Nachos
2 x Large Baggies 3-pack - on sale
2 x Medium Baggies 3-pack - on sale
2 x Allergy Pills 200 pack for $14.99
2 x Sugar *Did not know it was going on sale at Wal-Mart
1 x Baking Powder 2-pack
2 x Bacon Crumbles
1 x Yeast *Regular Yeast, I only had Instant
2 x Dove Shampoo - On Sale $6.99
2 x Dove Conditioner - On Sale $6.99
1 x Whipping Cream

I know there was more I cannot think of. I wanted to get Romaine, Celery, Passata, Canned Tomatoes, Crisco, Basil, Cumin and they did not have any.

Some of the things I noticed at Costco:
Sour Cream used to be $3.99 for a 2-pack, now $4.99
Baby Carrots used to be $6.99 now $8.49
Mushrooms Button 680 g and Portobellos (4-5 Pack) used to be $4.99. then $5.49, now $5.99
Zucchini was $3.99, then $4.49, now $5.99
Frozen Triple Berries used to be $13.99 now $17.99
Toilet Paper was $17.99 now $18.99
Ricotta was $7.89 now $8.49
Bacon was $14.99, then $17.99, then $21.99, then $24.99, then $19.99, now $21.99
Butter was $3.99, then $4.49, now $4.99

I also noticed that some of the variety is lacking. The shelves were not empty but for example in the spice section normally in my Costco each one would have a section one box wide, now in some cases they are two or three boxes wide so the variety of spices available is limited. Tomatoes they only had diced, no big cans, no paste, no passata just skids and skids of diced.

I feel like grocery shopping is becoming a bit of a game of how can I keep my spending down. There are still deals to be found but they are more limited.