November 2022 Frugal Chatter (Brr...temps are falling!)

[Frugalbigmama]

Dark and cloudy and a bit of rain here now. So much for a nice weekend. Guess I will be getting lots done inside.
One thing I plan to do it go through and sort paper. I have some fling folder to organize what I need to keep and then will shred what can go.

I have had a very productive day at work today. Finished so many little things that needed to be dealt with. Going to clean up my desk now and then print off at all the reports I will need to start on Monday. Ready to shut off my work brain!

[barbis9]

Good Morning,
Mom needed to drop something off to a friend last night so I tagged along as I needed to go to our branch at closing to fix a computer issue. All fixed.

Mom needs a new laptop, your laptop died at the start of the pandemic and with her not working at the time getting a new one was not an option. But, her friend's son can get laptops through his work, so Mom got a refurbished one for $50, an amazing deal but not ideal. It is a little laptop the screen is small which does not work for Mom and it does not always work.

My plan had been to watch the Black Friday sales and see if I could swing one for Christmas but, we have had a few unexpected costs lately. So I found a deal at Costco, discussed it with Bro and we are going to split the cost and get her a new laptop for Christmas. The deal at Costco is great, I do not think we will find a better deal.

Funny thing is, getting her a new laptop is going to cost less than maintaining her current laptop. It is annoying that you cannot just buy a program outright anymore and instead have to pay yearly. The new laptop comes with a year of Microsoft free so we just have to renew her antivirus.

Costco is great! They will stand behind their products. I bought an ipad air, last year and it works great, excellent price as it was a discontinued item. I think you have 90 days to return if any issues.....much better than Best Buy.

[barbis9]

@SassyAshley Sounds like a great plan, getting Mom that new laptop! Hope it has an ethernet port or you have a USB 3.0 port on the laptop to plug in an USB/Ethernet adapter. I may point Bro to the same offer as his own laptop is about a decade old.

Bro's refurbished ThinkCentre ( 2yrs and 4 months old)crashed on me twice within 5min after 10pm last night. He's blaming me but I reminded him that during his vacation and afterwards, I told him I thought the hard drive is on its way to failure (and advised him to back up his files). Speaking as someone who had a tower failure and refurbished laptop drive failure within 1 year and some weeks of each other... It's Bro's only Windows 10 device (except for when I had the laptop during summer) and his vacation videos need Win10 for editing etc. Going to be *fun* to see what happens next.

Just printing off all the order correspondence. Got three emails this morning-2 from carrier regarding delivery and 1 from store chain that item is delivered. I'm guessing I won't be seeing that refund in my account today when I go to check. I'm in the midst of yardwork (actually on snack/bevvie break) since I checked the forecast for next 72h and today really is push day on getting stuff done outdoors.

Community paper bundle arrived during early morning. Leafed through flyers but since I read most of them here and online, only the CT holiday flyer insert is new.

@Ciel21 I have had the same problem with several defective hard drives. Now I understand why my friend brags about Apple. I have gone through so many Acer laptops, and gave up on towers when my last hard drive went.

[barbis9]

Was browsing RCSS and saw 11-pound boxes of chicken legs for $12. That works out to $1.09/lb; not as good as $1/lb, but still acceptable. I was more surprised to see that there had been no advertising for this product. It's a pretty good deal; what's the point of having a sale and not telling anyone?!

This wasn't the first special price I've seen from RCSS. The past couple of months, I've seen a few occasions where there was $4/lb brisket and no mention anywhere. I took advantage of the price but, judging by how long the inventory took to clear, not many others knew/did anything about it. I would have expected the legs to almost fly out of the freezer.

It maybe just that store has too much stock. Anyways good for you for getting a deal. With the way prices are these days, we all need to do more browsing in the stores - however the downside is finding more things to buy.

[barbis9]

About 30 minutes into last push on yardwork, some raindrops fell. Just finished mulching one area of high priority-put machine away and continued to rake shredded leaves (they are acidic and will need bagging next week). Raked the stringy leaves from another tree that also must be bagged-halfway through raking, rain fell more steadily. Wet leaves were harder to move along but I stuck it out. If Bro can be convinced to run the lawn tractor once more next week, then most of yard will be ready to snooze for the cold season.

The rain must have cancelled the warplane flight-did not hear nor see it at all today.

Have wet apparel sorted into two laundry loads and almost have first load done washing. Glad I had oatmeal porridge this morning mixed with some of the flavoured Gerber cereal and some cinnamon and ginger (and a spoonful of brown sugar) plus a chai latte, to get me through the morning. Needed all of that carbohydrate motivation.

Impressed with all the grocery deals and finds (chicken legs!) SCers are posting. I remember when I was in Sobey's (Wed am) a meat dept clerk was surrounded by three shoppers-not sure if there was a marked down ground meat special but I heard something about current date. If the meat area was quiet, I could have looked a little more closely to spot where the Ricardo prepared meats/roasts were as they are in the flyer but they are not available on the Voila platform. I miss having a leisurely long shop at Sobeys, then a refreshment/light bite in the classroom/eating area (former perks of doing those long walks in the area-memories). Case of 12 cans of pop was in the $7.47 range (ouch) but almost all of the Coke 8pk mini bottles were stacked in the back corner of store by the breakfast foods/ice cream freezers.

Doesn't Sobeys' have those motorized carts? I have used them on really bad pain days.

[barbis9]

WOW! That is the price of pop now? I remember back in the day when SDM would sell it for $2.99 on a Saturday sale.
Fortunately neither of my boys have liked pop so I never buy it.

That's why I switched to house brands as brand name pop is ridiculous. I wish I never started drinking pop. I do find the bottles to be a better deal than cans when on sale.

[barbis9]

ceil-yes i looked at the price of pop in no frills last week$7.99,(we never buy it)so i decided to buy p.c gingerale 3.99 as hubby said he would like the odd pop with his lays chips ,well he doesnt care for the p.c brand gingerale .

I just xmas shopped at the gap ,as they sent me an email for an extra 11% on top of sale and clearance items .I spent 29.99 and got 3 pairs of joggers for the 3 grandkids for xmas and a top for ashlyn $2.66 at the gap (better than thrift store prices ) and mens socks for me in large (as i already bought the yellow pair last month now i will get the pink pair $2.66.

The pc diet cola is good. You can return the case, and get a refund as its' a PC product. I actually like their ginger ale. My preference is Schweppes but have converted to store brands.

[Frugalbigmama]

Have flourless brownies in the oven. ripe bananas/peanut butter and cocoa. Simple!

Also cooking up burger patties to go with buns we have to use up.

I saw a post today showing a 3 pk of romaine for $12.99 at a Toronto grocery store....

[flemeth]

Have flourless brownies in the oven. ripe bananas/peanut butter and cocoa. Simple!

Also cooking up burger patties to go with buns we have to use up.

I saw a post today showing a 3 pk of romaine for $12.99 at a Toronto grocery store....

@Frugalbigmama and I was whining to the family that I paid $8.99 yesterday for a 3 Pk. Guess I got a deal.

[Angela273]

I arrived home yesterday and don’t drive back until Monday. This is the longest I’ve been home since August. I intentionally today off from work, but my brain still drifts back to difficulties I’ve encountered with some of the courses I’m teaching.

I took the kids shopping with me while Dh was at work. We picked up a few deals at NF.
2x $2.99 Hersheys butterscotch Chipits - 2x $0.75 CO51
5x $4.99 Royale pt - 5x $2 CO51

[Ciel21]

Shoppers' weekend sale $2.99 has become $3.49 for a Coke or Pepsi 6pk (some weekends, you can only buy packs of 2 to get the price but it's now back to single pack pricing)for about two months now. That's why when a grocery store app (Food Basics or Metro) had a Pepsi 6pk for $1.97, I was like "go, go, go if you have the offer and app!"

Case pop (12 cans) is sitting at around $6.77 for brand name pop and a dollar or so less for store brand pop _regular price, not sale price. Have you noticed the surge of 2 for $11 or $14 multi-pricing in grocery flyers??

I forgot to check to see if Fortinos brought in any diet PC cola mini-cans this week. When I was buying the pop for the food bank box, there was no diet cola stock on shelves.

Mini-bottles of Coke-this week Freshco has the 8pks on sale for $4.99. Usual retail price is about $6.77 but sometimes sale price is $5.49 or something. If you manage to find Coke Dreamworld (regular or Zero Sugar) at that price, buy!!!

Longos Nov 11-16 in-store; Coke or AHA 12 cans, 2 for $12 ($6.99 each regular). Coke mini-cans 2 for $7 ($3.99 individual).

[Ciel21]

Movie fans-Black Panther: Wakanda Forever opened today. Here's a weekend promotion at Toys R Us

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning,
Woke up just before 6 but for some reason, I am super tired and I am not sure why.

Last night we just pulled homemade burgers from the freezer and make Oven Fries with Gravy. Yesterday afternoon I was sitting here working again and just became so tired. Maybe it is the weather.

I am not sure about any other allergy suffers but mine are next level right now. I feel like it is spring right now but I see why, I was driving on the backroads this week and saw that most of the farmer's fields have started to grow again.

I have so much I should be getting done today but I have zero ambition.

Happy Saturday

[Frugalbigmama]

Good Morning!

Dropped DS off at work and I am back home getting stuff done. Starting with the kitchen.
I have an appt this morning to get my eyebrows waxed (I am very fair so don't have to get it done often but I really like getting this done )
Then I will come back home and continue on house chores and then shower for the day. Will go out and about town this afternoon picking up a few items on my list.

Enjoy the day!

[SassyAshley]

Gathered everything up to defrost the stand-up freezer, stood in front of it for 10 minutes and decided, nope, not today.

I did pull a half pack of bacon I will cook up to go with the bagels I bought.

But then decided I wanted Apple Pancakes so I make Apple Pancakes.

Well, I was making the pancakes, emptied and reloaded the dishwasher.

Well, I ate the pancakes. I made our meal plan for the week. I am not 100% set on the meal plan. I am very one-track-minded today. My first draft of my meal plan had multiple Chinese Dishes and Chicken and Mushroom dishes., and the second draft was 75% pasta dishes. It is more balanced now but not sure, I might tweak it some more.