May Frugal Chat 2022

[SassyAshley]

I was a little bad this morning. I got up and was scrolling on my phone and saw the Costco Hidden Sales posted, I checked it out as I am hoping Probiotics will go on sale, I missed the last sale. They were not on sale but pans that were on sale back at Christmas time that I found and talked myself out of buying are on sale. I went back and forth but in the end, I went to Costco.

At Costco I got:
Skillets that were on sale, it is a 2-pack for $39.99
Sourdough Rye Bread 2-pack $4.49
Italian Rolls (I think it said 36/pack) $5.99
**Normally we buy the Artisan Hamburger Buns but last time we bought them they were super chewy, so decided to try something new
Classic Tomato Basil Sauce 4-pack $9.99
**I was going to hold off buy these but I noticed they only had a few left so grabbed one before they were gone
4-pack of Mix & Match Herbs $13.99
**I got Basil x 2, Thyme and Rosemary

Going to try gardening again this year, I got the herbs plus the bulbs I ordered off Costco.ca, it has Strawberries, Blueberries, Raspberries & Rhubarb

On the way home I decided to stop at No Frills to see if they had Tortillas, I got a little more Tortillas, I got:
2 x Romaine 2-pack $1.99
**This is cheaper than the 6-pack from Costco for $6.99
2 x Clementines $1.99
**I forgot these when I went Thursday
1 x Naturally Imperfect Peppers 2.5 lb $5
2 x Tomatoes $1.49/lb
6 x Tortillas $1.75 WUB 2 or more
1 x Onions 10lb $1.99
There was a new skid of onions now marked down to $1.99, I dug through found a good bag but figured even there are a few sprouting onions, I could not pass up $1.99 for 10 lbs. I checked the price at Costco currently their 10 lb Onions are $9.99

[harbie]

@SassyAshley can I ask where this Costco hidden sales list can be found? Wonder if it includes BC??? Very interesting

[SassyAshley]

@harbie in Ontario there is someone who walks Kingston warehouse but I have seen one, I think for BC. I am not sure what warehouse they walk but it looks like this is one for the east:

https://cocowest.ca/

It can be a little hit and miss as sometimes Kingston has items in stock my local store does not or they carry items my store does not but it really helps me decide when to go. For Ontario they post twice a week usually Monday when the sales change and Friday PM/Saturday AM to add in the extra weekend sales.

I honestly until I found this blog did not know of the hidden sales or that they have weekend only sales.

[harbie]

Thanks @SassyAshley that would explain why I found impossible on sale but it wasn’t on . Off to browse

[SassyAshley]

Today did not go as planned. My plan after I went to Costco was to come home ingredient prep, maybe a little meal prep and then a pantry tidy. I knew I had at least 5 bags in the basement that needed to be put away/rotated into my pantry. Plus I knew there was still some stuff in the kitchen that needed to be bagged up and taken down.

Instead when I was coming home I noticed someone talking to our neighbour and went to a couple other houses. I asked Mom if they came to our door, yep, they did, they were here telling us they will be starting on Monday to repair our basements.

Yippee they are fixing them and it did not take months of when will this done? Downside is we needed to dismantle the pantry and move stuff in the basement around so they can work. Mom had not thought about the fact we needed to dismantle the pantry. So down we went to dismantle our pantry, it is was sad, I finally had it organized the way I liked it, so I took photos before we took it down.

Took use about 2 hours but everything has been moved so they can start work on Monday.

I can admit it was not my best afternoon because my head started spinning. All I could think as we took the pantry apart was next weekend we will need to go back down, clean everything (ugh, I hate drywall dust) and then put the pantry back together. I had already been hoping since next weekend is the long weekend to tackle the front hallway, clean the corner, paint the corner and put up the bookshelves. Then when we came back upstairs Mom was listing off various other projects we need to tackle and my head just could not handle it. I just got super overwhelmed and so I went and took a nice long shower and just turned my brain off for a bit.

Dinner tonight was take-out, it was a take-out kind of night and I am good with it, it was exactly what I needed.

Now that I have had some time I will gather my thoughts and try to write a realistic to-do-list and come up with a plan to tackle all of these projects.

[Frugalbigmama]

Just returned home after dinner out and watching the Leafs game My friend and planned our road trip next week to the US We are so excited.

Today was a fun day so tomorrow is a get stuff done around the house day. Was a beautiful sunny hot day and the rain they were calling for earlier just started right now!

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning,
Nice cool air outside so I have opened up the doors and windows to air out the house a little bit. I think it is supposed to be warmer this afternoon, we shall see, if it gets warm I will close everything back up.

I need to tackle our Kitchen, dishwasher needs to be emptied and reloaded, did not get it done yesterday. As well there is some stuff that needs to be taken downstairs from my shopping this week.

I really want to get some ingredient and Meal Prep done today. I know this week is going to be insane, I am kind of overbooked but not, basically as long as nothing else comes in this week I need to do, I am not overbooked. But, reality tells me I will be overbooked as things start filter in and I will fall behind this week and I know it. So quick grab and eat is needed.

Happy Sunday Everyone

[coupon girl]

Morning not much sleep last night dealing with another health problem along with my knee ,when it rains it pours right.

Off to once upon a child with hubby to sell clothing for my daughter and daughter -in-law,i am such a nice mom .lol

I am so sick of kerig machines mine broke after 1 yr and 3 months so sister in -law gave me a free one she had in her cupboard for a few yrs -hate it it doesnt read all k-cups and is a pain in the butt.
Does anyone have a good coffee maker they can tell me about -i may buy one soon.

[lilo0003]

Today is going to busy. All the weekend chores needs to happen today. I was out Friday for a friends birthday and yesterday left home at 9 am and returned at almost midnight. It was a great day but sad as my brother and SIL have less then 3 weeks til the move. But I may go back next weekend to help finish the packing.
I have no idea what I need for groceries so that’s the 1st plan and then may a garden centre while I am getting groceries because with the price of gas I need to be very well planned with my trips. @coupongirl I just have a regular coffee maker. I don’t understand the appeal of the k cup and have always though them to be an environmentalist nightmare not to mention expensive. I bought my last one at Costco and it’s 4 yrs old no issues and easily makes a small amount for me, sometimes it’s my son or DH but 99% of the time I am the only one drinking coffee.

[harbie]

Hope your week doesn’t overwhelm you @SassyAshley .
@coupon girl sorry you’re having more problems. Hopefully it gets rectified quickly. As for your Keurig I get it. We have gone through several over the years (all returned back to Costco) finally we gave up and got a kettle and do a pour over. While it’s boiling I’m frothing my silk almond creamer and boom it’s done. Not sure that’s what you were looking for.
@lilo0003 sounds like you have a fun day ahead (j/k). Hope you can get it all done but try not to sweat it too much if you can’t.

[flemeth]

@coupongirl sorry you are still not feeling great with the knees and to have other health issues pop up. Hope you get it resolve

[harbie]

Since it’s once again overcast and rainy we won’t be doing much outside today.

Doing our usual weekly CC payoff and spending discussion. We have a few upcoming purchases like the last of my dental work (except for the final night guard when it’s all completed) so we are just going over the budget for those expenses.

We will top off the car with diesel. We try to not let it go below 1/2 tank for emergency purposes and for sticker shock. When it’s 239.9/L it’s scary enough to fill up halfway so I can only imagine how I’d feel if I ran empty.

I’m holding off grocery shopping until hopefully the next flyer release but I may have to grab a few things. I’ll only grab a few things to make a meal or 2 because the veg prices are not what I’m wanting to pay. I mean $1.99/lb for sweet potatoes is way too much so hopefully next week they will be on sale……somewhere.

Happy Sunday

[SassyAshley]

@harbie do any of your local stores off the Naturally Imperfect veggies. I know at my local No Frills they can be hit at times but lately they have been pretty well stocked. I got:
2.5 lbs Peppers $5
5 lbs Carrots $3.50
680g Mushrooms $4
6 lbs Apples $5

I also noticed:
10 lbs Sweet Potatoes $5
400 g Cucumbers $3 (I think it was 400g they have a weird way of bagging the Naturally Imperfect Cucumbers but if Wal-Mart did not have them on sale for $0.64 this would have been a better deal)

I saw my store also had Green Pepper and Zucchini but I did not look at the prices. I could not find a price for the Garlic so I just grabbed a 3-pack

Not the rock bottom prices they were when Naturally Imperfect originally came out with prices these days, any little bits help especially on the fresh stuff.

[SassyAshley]

As the temperatures rise I have started to drink fruit infused waters. Friday I took Strawberry Lime with me to work and having the same today to use up the rest of the lime.

One of my other favourites is Apple Cinnamon using a few slices of apples and half a cinnamon stick. Only thing is I do not use the whole apple but do not want to waste the rest.

I found a trick that said to soak your apple slices in cold water with some salt, let the salt dissolve and soak your apples for 5 minutes, after the 5 minutes rinse the apples and store. I did this last week and took the leftover apple slices to work Friday and no brown spots (this was 2 days later), I kept one slice just to see and even today no brown spots. No they do not taste salty, I was worried.

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
Did not get as much done as I had hoped yesterday, between the heat, my foot, back and hip acting up and just being tired, I am happy with what I got done but it was not everything I needed to get done.

I got the kitchen clean which was top priority, it felt like our kitchen was getting smaller and smaller with things that just were not in their home. Dishwasher emptied, reloaded, hand dishes, cleaned off the random stuff from the counters and took the pantry stuff down the basement.

In the afternoon I got a little bit of veggie prep done but not all of it.

I broke down and packaged the Romaine I grabbed at No Frills, I found taking off any of the outside with markings and then packaging with paper towel really extends the life of the romaine. As long as I do not chop it up, I can get a Costco pack to last right around a month this way.

Had some Mini Cucumbers with some soft ends so I cut the ends off and chopped these up, I was going to save them for Salads this week but ended up just making a cucumber based salad for dinner. I added some balsamic dressing, bocconcini and part of a red pepper that needed to be used up.

This morning I had to get up and right at it, we did not get laundry done yesterday so I started that at 5:30 this morning. Plus I needed to do some tidying on the main floor so they would be able to get their tools into our basement. Got it all done to find out they aren't bringing their stuff through the house, they brought it in through the basement window, but oh well it is done. They are not gone cannot work in the rain as they are going to do all of the cutting outside.

Thinking Lazy Lasagna for Dinner tonight. We do not have any premade sauce so will use one of the jars I bought and add cooked ground beef and thinking will add some mushrooms to it.

Still have some ingredient prep to finish but feeling like I am in a good place right now.

Happy Monday