January 2023 Frugal Chatter Thread -Money shuffle dance time!

[harbie]

The sun is shining finally here today and it’s glorious! I have SO MUCH energy it’s scary. Goes to show just how much we need the sun.

I went for a walk with my parents and treated them to “coffee”. Total rip off for $14 for a black coffee, a hot chocolate (mom) and a latte for me but worth it since I got to spend time with them and we sat outside and just soaked up the sunshine.

I stopped in at IGA for some items that are normally $10.99 but on sale for $7.49 & $7.99. Straight into the freezer they went so I’m stocked up for a while.

The freezer has been completely overhauled and reorganized. Things are sorted by expiration dates and product groups. The fridge is cleaned out, last of the loaf dinner is I’m my belly, 2 loads of laundry are done and put away, 1 in the dryer and 1 in the washer as we speak. Kitchen also tidied and dishwasher loaded and running.

Planning on doing my 3rd split strength workout this afternoon so I can go for a run with Dh after. It’s a tough upper body push so I’m kinda dreading it a bit.

Oh ya. My garden is starting to bloom! My garlic is coming up and so are my tulips. I’m so ready to see the garden blooming again.

Have a great weekend everyone

[coupon girl]

Evening we took ashlyn to her art class today as my son was working and daughter-in-law took cara to gymnastics -time frame overlaps.
WE had 1 and a half hours to kill ,so i asked hubby if i got him a timmies could i run into shoppers ,spent 70 and got 32,000 points .20,000 was the surprize one ,had a few good offers an instore one on country harvest bagels plus my personal one (love it when it is a double deal )
I am so glad my back felt great today .

[HermanH]

Rescued 2x cans of mango pulp, 1 can of soup, some honey, and a can of gravy from the dump.


Big sigh, RCSS has changed their price-match policy to 'only major competitors Walmart, Safeway, Sav-On, and Freshco.' Now, they are no better than anyone else. It was inevitable. They were only forced into P-M when Walmart did it. They fought long and hard against it, but finally followed. Now that Walmart is no longer offering P-M, it was only a matter of time before RCSS fell from 'industry leader' to 'just another'.

The last time they pulled this stunt, they reverted to their previous 'any competitor' policy after outcry from the public. So, I called and complained. If complaints are the only things that get action, then that is what they shall receive. Hope that they see the light sooner than later.

[lilo0003]

It was a good day of earning points. I took advantage of the Air Miles offer at metro. I hate buying produce in plastic bags but could not resist the peppers. 2.99 for 3 large peppers and they are my go to snacks when I take the time to prep them. I will go back Sunday to do another 10.00 in Air Mile for the bonus offer. DH needed gas so that meant a trip to Shell to finish the monthly offer so that was another 50 AM earned.
I did my 4th shop of the month at SDM so that was 7000 PCO earned.
Then is was almost 25000 PCO with groceries and I used points to pay for the entire order so I used 70000 and earned 25000. If only it was always the case. I was sure they would give me grief on the blueberry price match as the country’s did not match but no issue.
I went to CT for an oil change and some stuff in store and that was another $30.00 in CT $. If on,y every day was like this.

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
The snow is still coming down. I heard them plowing about half an hour before I got up and when I got up it was already covering the ground again.

I am struggling with our meal plan for the week but I think it is because I am overthinking it. I have a lot of afternoon meetings which always makes Dinner a little more chaotic. I found 2 Slow Cooker meals for the week but after that I kind of felt like all of the meals were similar, all chicken to be served over Pasta. I also have an Instant Pot meal I want to try but I have to see if we have Tumeric.

The first thing I need to do is finalize the meal plan so I can figure out if there is any prep I need I need to do. But I think I just figure out 3 meals so that makes things a little easier.

A little bit of a slower start today but all good, I did get a lot done yesterday.

Happy Sunday

[Frugalbigmama]

Happy Sunday! Lots of snow here and it is still coming down.

Dropped DS off at work and stopped at Walmart to walk around. Found 18pk of brown eggs for $3.18 (expire march 03 and one has a slight crack in it)
Walked around No Frills and grabbed another bag of shredded cracker barrel cheese for $3.99 less $1 coupon.

Back home and made breakfast (eggs and toast) and am boiling 6 eggs for my afternoon snack this week.

Now I will tackle the freezer at the bottom of the fridge (it is packed) Hopefully I find lots to pull and be inspired for dinner.

[Frugalbigmama]

Freezer is cleaned out and so organized now! And we are having pasta for dinner again tonight (we had it Friday!)
But I wanted the containers of part sauce and a bag of peppers out of the freezer. It's a cold day so pasta is perfect!

[SassyAshley]

Made a batch of Lemon Chicken Orzo Soup for lunches this week, this time I used between 3/4 & 1 cup of Orzo instead of 1 1/2 Cups like the recipe calls for. When using the 1 1/2 Cups by the time you eat your bowl of soup the Orzo has absorbed all of the liquid and it is no longer a soup. This time I let it cool before I put it in the fridge and there is still liquid in the soup.

Cooked a Batch of Rice, I have taken out a Pork Loin Roast I am going to put it in the slow cooker tomorrow morning. It is a Brown Sugar Sesame Pork Loin, Asian flavours which I will serve with the Rice. I also have some Stir Fry Veggies in the Freezer I need to use up so I will combine the Stir Fry Veggies and Veggie as a bit of a fried Rice but without the Soya Sauce or Seasoning as that will come from the liquid of the roast.

Made a Batch of Chocolate Cookies, yesterday afternoon when I was prepping I thought "I would like a Chocolate Chip Cookie" but I did not want to pull the mixer back out. So this morning I made a batch.

The kitchen is clean, and all the dishes are done. I need to do the floors, maybe this afternoon or maybe tomorrow.

I cleaned the Bathroom, I wanted to do a deep clean. I had planned to scrub down the wall and ceiling. But honestly, I did not have that in me today, so I just cleaned the bathroom, will do a deep clean this week or next weekend instead.

I think I have figured out our Meal Plan for the week, I have 2 slow cooker recipes and 1 Instant Pot recipe. Now the big question is what will we have tonight.

[barbis9]

We are equal billing with Enbridge and we paid 62.00 up until this past summer when they bumped us to 91.00 due to the rate increase and clearly something is up so I need to look at my bill because this month is 106.00. We heat with gas, cook with gas and have a natural gas fireplace dryer and bbq. So everyone wonders why our bill is so low and it’s because in the past 15 yrs with all our renovations every wall and ceiling in the house was replaced and the windows as well. We used the most energy efficient products we could and we did the energy audit as well. It was absolutely worth it. At night the house barely drops 2 degrees so even though it is set to to 17 most days is 18 when the furnace returns to its daytime temp. Now I am going to log into enbridge and see what portal of hell awaits me.

@lilo0003 wow, for all those renovations - they definitely paid off! I just have a gas furnace, everything else is electric. I suspect my front window, which fogs up is the culprit to some of my energy loss. Looking to replace this year, if I can find someone, as some window installers are projecting Sept install. Who did you use for your windows?

[barbis9]

Ahhh skippy thanks for the nice compliment ,well the girls went home at 6/15 .It was a long day ,my friend dropped by at 2.30 and gave the girls a small dollar tree bag with valentines treats and crafts in it ,nice gesture.

What am i doing now putting my aching back on my heating pad ,my lower back is killing me from all the bending i did outside on our small hill as they went down it ,i even made a small bump near the end they could go over.Plus all they playing i did with the girls.

@coupongirl you had the best exercise - I would love playing with young kids over the gym any day!

[barbis9]

@barbis9, Oh no, I hope you feel better and continue to test negative.

WOW that sounds scary.

@SassyAshley I thought I was negative when I wrote my post, however 1/2 an hour later I looked at my covid test, and I am positive . The hotel was noisy at night (rooftop bar), I thought I was just rundown from waking up at 3-4 am some mornings.

I just hope with this second time with Covid, I don't develop long covid symptoms. I am up to date on all my vaccines, including the flu shot.

[SassyAshley]

@barbis9 , I am not sure of the current times but I know last year some customers were waiting 8 to 16 weeks for windows last year depending on when they were ordered.

I seem to think it was September or October they cut off orders for 2022 and said all orders placed would have a 2023 lead time.

This has now led to so many installers being backed up waiting for the windows to come in.

[coupon girl]

lilo -excellent pay off after all the renos .We do have a new furnace 2 yrs old and air conditioner ,plus our roof is about 5 yrs old .

Barbis - thanks i do love my grandchildren ,and my back was sore only friday night.We took ashlyn to her art class yesterday ,i looked thru the window and she was soo happy drawing.
Oh take care hon ,my daughter had covid a second time in dec (got it from sebastain from school)it took her til this month to get her full energy back and she is 40(rides a peleton every day also)

[SassyAshley]

@barbis9 , Oh no, hopefully, you feel better soon and do not develop any additional symptoms.

[HermanH]

@SassyAshley I thought I was negative when I wrote my post, however 1/2 an hour later I looked at my covid test, and I am positive . The hotel was noisy at night (rooftop bar), I thought I was just rundown from waking up at 3-4 am some mornings.

I just hope with this second time with Covid, I don't develop long covid symptoms. I am up to date on all my vaccines, including the flu shot.

If you are early into the cycle, Paxlovid might help. The trick is that you gotta take it at early onset.