January 2023 Frugal Chatter Thread -Money shuffle dance time!

[barbis9]

whoa!! You 2 gals ( @SassyAshley and @Frugalbigmama ) are making me feel unaccomplished with your Saturday errands and such. lol .

Sassy, with how you described the many steps in shopping from start to finish, that happens to me too. By the time I've hit a 3rd store and look at the bags I'll
be needing to bring in and unpack, it drains any strength and oomph I started out with.

This darn weather advisory has us thinking that we may have to cancel our reservation at Mandarin tomorrow. It's just a joint b'day celebration for DS#2 and moi.
Fiddlesticks though!! We'll just see how bad the road situation is tomorrow. This morning I was at my closer location of WalMart at 7 a.m. to exchange a denim shirt
( DS b'day gift ) but of course they had none to exchange for a bigger size so I had to go back out to the Pickering one.

Once back home, got the pets squared away with food, then went back out to NF and Metro. Yesterday at Metro I had redeemed 95 to earn 25 AM, bought a single wee potato for .36 to earn another 4 AM, eggs to earn 3 and milk to earn 3 more....love those Metro offers.

In the parking lot the window wash light came on so I took the time to drag the new bottle out of the trunk and filled that up.
DH never noticed but I made sure I " mentioned " it. lol.
So today I was back at Metro to redeem another 95 AM, for 25 back, earned an extra 15 AM for spending $15.00 on Irresistible non dairy frozen treats,
grabbed a 3 pack of their Romain for $2.99 and got another 5 AM on a separate Irresistible product. They all add up don't they.

Then at NF I did a Royale Tiger Paper towel run....I really hate these stupid paper towel roll conversions ....2=5, 3=6, 6=12...argh! They're giving me less paper for more money and this baffling me with bullsh*t technique is aggravating.
At least the coupons and NF offer saved me some money. ( I applied the $3.00 coupon to the $19.99 pkg., $2.00 to the $9.99 pkg. and they gave me 8,000 points for spending $20.00 on paper towels.When the dust settled I paid $17.00 for 17 rolls. Too much imho, but we needed some more.
The offer of 4,000 points wyb 3 trays of berries was welcomed. I PM'd blueberries and blackberries from FB. Plus I had a separate blueberry offer.. Nice!
Each tray came out to just $1.25

So done by the time I returned home. I feel a nap coming on.....

@walkonby I too get so confused with paper towels, that I now use the calculator on my phone to see which is the better offer (compare actual sheets per roll).

I also use Dollarama dish towels to reduce paper towel use overall. I love that McDonalds is very generous with their napkins - I save them from each order to use them in the kitchen and my SUV as needed.

[coupon girl]

Barbis -i use the extra napkins from any fast food also .I use clean rags for cleaning my kitchen area,(then wash them)to keep my paper towel usage down.

[SassyAshley]

The comments made me think of this.

[harbie]

Hope you’re feeling better soon @barbis9 and don’t get long haul. Take care and rest up

[SassyAshley]

Seems to have stopped snowing here although I see they are calling for more overnight.

Went out, did the shovelling, cleaned off the cars, and made sure I could drive mine over the hump (didn't have Mom's keys with me but hers is higher than mine so should be fine). The snow in between the cars is higher than my boots and my door, I had to clear some snow just to open my door.

Took out the Garbage as well since I was outside anyway.

Dinner we are keeping simple as I have no ambition now, I got a lot done this weekend, and I am happy. Mom has been in a lot of pain, not sure if it is the weather as one of my co-workers who has really bad arthritis has been off a lot lately and seems to match up to Mom's bad days. SO Instead of Fried Chicken Chicken Sandwiches which was our plan but a bit labour-intensive (Breading, Frying) we changed to Burgers which just needed to be pulled from the freezer and defrosted.

I need to prep for the week ahead, I was hoping to hear from our IT guy, he did not come in last week as he was under the weather but now the stuff I needed to be done for this week is not done. If it does not get done tomorrow, I am going to have to get creative and we are talking about a level of creativity that is outside my normal creative level. Like a serious, "how am I going to make this work?" "Can I make this work?" level, ugh.

On another note. WHAT IS UP NETFLIX? All of a sudden they are releasing shows in sections. The next season of You is being released in 2 sections, I was watching a show with Mom today, and we got 3 episodes and after that, they are releasing 2 episodes every 2 weeks. It is one thing when I watch regular TV, I expect to get 1 episode a week but with Netflix, the whole point is binge-watching. Sorry for my rant, but just saying that is what the streaming services are for me at least.

[harbie]

Got out in the sunshine today but it was cold and a bit windy but I’ll take it.

Hitting the gym for my run shortly and still need to figure out the dinner situation for tonight.

Dh and I are meeting our financial advisor tomorrow so i need a few things to bring with us and I plan to hit up the gym for another run before we leave.

The positive thing is I didn’t spend anything today. No coffee or anything so that’s good although I did miss my Starbucks but I’ll most likely get one tomorrow when we’re on the road.

[lilo0003]

@barbis9 we used one place for the kitchen window no whole the price was right I did not live the service. We used Fasada for the other windows and would highly recommend. Pleased with the sales and installation and we get no condensation in those windows. They are on Dundas at Brontë road. We had to do all the renovations because we could not afford to stay in this with otherwise and it was eventually worth all the pain and suffering. @coupongirl I totally forgot we have a new furnace and AC. when that when in 4 yrs ago we actually watched the electricity cost drop.
I splurged today and went to the movies with friends. We saw a Man called Otto. It’s based on a book that I love and I was pleased the relationship of the characters was very similar to the book but be prepared to cry. Tom Hanks is as amazing as ever.

[flemeth]

@barbis9 hope you feel better soon .

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning,
Ugh, snowing again. It is accumulating which means more shovelling and cleaning off the cars again.

Working on getting all of the work things done.

I need to do the floors today, I was hoping to get the main floor done yesterday but I shovelled snow instead.

I was hoping to run out today and do a few things today but thinking I might put that off and finish up the last few house things I need to get done instead.

I am kind of enjoying the fact that so far for January we have been under budget on groceries and house stuff so I kind of do not want to spend money. But, there are a few things we need plus I will need to go to Costco either this week or next. I just feel like November & December were expensive even though we "skipped" Christmas, other things came up and I am just starting to feel back in control. All of the spending was needed and planned for but it all came at the same time where is I thought it would have been more spread out.

Happy Monday

[Frugalbigmama]

Good Morning! It is cold but we have sunshine.

Let's get this busy work day out of the way. Then I can go to the gym and start my week off right.
I know it will be crazy workwise but I have to remind myself to take time for me and not going to the gym makes me not feel good so I have to take the time.

Kitchen is clean. Laundry system is working. Have a load to wash and then hang to dry.

Have a great day!

[Frugalbigmama]

We are under a travel advisory again. 15-25 cm of snow expected starting this afternoon till tomorrow.
So stuck in town again

I just had some leftovers for lunch. Now to power through my work!

[harbie]

I feel bad for posting this with everyone stuck with snow…. Sorry.

Up early as usual and did my 007 themed full body stretch, 30 min strength pull with core, just over 3km hill run and a quick walk around the block to cool down in the sunshine ( it’s -5 but sunny).

House is tidy and we’re off to the financial advisor. Have a great day everyone.

[coupon girl]

Sassy -we were under budget last month for groceries and i was able to set some aside for hubby's dental work which starts soon.

We got a light dusting in southern ontario.But my knees were killing me this morning ,so hubby went and got my hold at the library "Spare" all the librarians were jealous.

[Frugalbigmama]

Dinner tonight is steak/shrimp, onions/mushrooms, baked potato and green beans.
The mission to use up what we have is on! The mushrooms were going to have to be tossed soon so happy we are having them tonight.

The snow just keeps coming! Will be interesting to see what we wake up to!

[Ciel21]

It was lightly snowing fluffy snow by the time I got to the bank and Fortinos today. Bank-got a money order to mail out for the two-month+ order drama (here's hoping it works; bank employee told me what can be done if mail gets returned to me) and counter statement, then over to Shoppers to mail the envelope. No Kleenex pocket packs in stock but hurrah Fortinos has the pocket packs on SALE until Feb 1 for $3.49. Got 2. Struck out on getting another Advil Cold and Sinus convenience pack-glad I brought box front for first box along as I did not find its match. Sigh. At least I got my bus fare card loaded-my three bags of groceries were too heavy to carry to library so a bus home, quick supper and bus back before transfer expires is making my day. Only just a little over 1 hour of Internet but I will make it work.

Vileda Scrunge 4 packs are now 3packs for $4.99 at Fortinos. Sigh on price inflation...I got some cleaning items but could not find the Vim Power and Shine bathroom spray at Fortinos. Forgot to check at Shoppers when I was in the household area looking for pocket tissues.

Tomorrow is supposed to be colder and I will be home with soup and figuring out some shenanigans to pass time. Bro got his appetite back for supper on Sat night but he's still a-sniffling, so am I and Mom. I washed some blankets and towels plus personal laundry. Bro was finally working on the dryer and hopefully has figured out what is clunking when cycle is activated (all his gym towels got washed on purpose in case Bro has bringing home something from gym and I added a bit of bleach as insurance). I really don't want another sinus cold but my nose is switching stuffiness from side to side and I will be drinking lemon and ginger tea fiercely as a result).

Dairy Farmers of Ontario e-mail subscribers-check your inbox for the recipes e-mail today: there's a $1.50 off Tre Stelle Marscapone & Ricotta cheese coupon that expires on April 30, 2023 in the e-mail.

While I was vacuuming this morning, I was rather surprised there's just one more day to January. Seems this month was a Formula1 car in high gear!