August 2023 Frugal Chatter Thread

[walkonby]

oh no!! @SassyAshley I'm scared FOR you. Stinging pests really terrify me, if I miss when swatting they will retaliate! I hope you managed to plug all their entryways.
Who needs THAT when you already have this to deal with



Same thing here. I love to cook but I often think " oh no, I cannot possibly make " that " again for dinner. ( whatever IT is ) when it's funny because I have 2 really great guys here that will eat almost everything I make.....well except for liver and onions.
Like you Sassy with the Cucumber spread, I'm the only fool living here who loves liver and onions.
We have lots of delicious leftovers from last night so no cooking today at all!
@harbie , this must be glorious for the 2 of you to not think about work until Wednesday!! Soak it in, drink it up or run away from it ( if that is needed? ) ha ha

Have a great Sunday all.

[SassyAshley]

I have taken 4 trips to the basement today and so far *knock-on-wood* no Wasps. Although I am not fully convinced that they are now not getting in around the electrical pipe. I tried to take a look when I took out the garbage but there were a ton of wasps in the grass and I was afraid of getting stung so I did not get too close.

Today did not go as planned, after having our Brunch the plan was to go in the kitchen and get all the kitchen things done. Nope, I went to put on a Movie to play in the background, Mom picked Mary Poppins and I fell asleep on the couch.

After I woke up the plan was to get all the things done but, nope, I have been exhausted all afternoon. I did manage to clean out the fridge, grrr, a bit of food waste this week as stuff got pushed to the back of the fridge. Although now that I cleaned it out, it is so empty, so tons of room to prep tomorrow and fill it will quick and easy grab-and-go foods.

Of course, after cleaning the fridge out, I took the garbage out.

Dinner tonight was super simple as we went back and forth until 5:30 trying to come up with a dinner idea that would be gentle on the tummy. We ended up having Baked Chicken Breast, with Oven Fries and Sauteed Cauliflower.

I must say I was a little bit disappointed with the Cauliflower it was a frozen bag from PC and I know the bags are by weight but there were 6 huge pieces in the bag and that was it so I ended up cooking the whole bag. It was a nice change.

Although I now realize digging through the freezer I am completely overstocked with Green Beans, I have at least 5 bags so need to start using some of these up.

They are calling for Thunderstorms tomorrow so just in case, I charged up all of my devices and downloaded shows and movies from both Netflix and Disney+. Also, I do not plan to work tomorrow but my laptop is charged and I did pull a few files off the server so that if we do lose power and I am bored I have some files I can work on. I am such a planner LOL.

Now we are watching Pretty Woman and think I will have an Ice Cream Sandwich.

[harbie]

So excited that my padded cycling shorts I bought on Amazon fit!. Actually I purchased 2 different sizes and the smaller ones fit beautifully . That’s good for the ego.

I just HAD to try them so Dh and I went on a long ride (18km). Wow what a difference. No issues with my sit bones. Total game changer.

It was breezy and overcast-ish but the humidity hit when you were standing still. Dh and I needed some fuel so we stopped at IGA and grabbed 2 Cliff bars for a total of $4.98 . Totally a rip off but I don’t have any at home and we needed the protein.

I’ll get my Amazon return ready tonight and I’ll drop it off Tuesday and wait for the $$$ return.

I’m off to bed early after I clean the kitchen from dinner. It’s only 6:30 but I’m drained.

[lilo0003]

DH and I drove DS1 to the airport yesterday. I am going to miss living 30 minutes from Pearson. But he cleared security and was at the gate in 15 minutes so that’s a win. He is back in Ontario for a week to see his dog and his grandparents.
Monday we drive to Peggy’s Cove to visit a cousin and Tuesday we begin the 19 hour drive home. So we will be how. Wednesday by dinner. We don’t plan to come back for the closing and instead will drive back in October to ready the house for a winter of no residents. I hope to stay for 3 weeks and I can work here if we get the internet set up. I am trying to prepare myself for the madness of the next 3 yrs.

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
Thinking it is time for a sleep reset, all of a sudden my body's natural clock is falling asleep at 11 pm and waking up at 7 or 7:30, this does not work for me. I need to start falling asleep earlier.

I want to spend some time in the kitchen today, I have not done a full prep in weeks, lately, it has been the basics so today I want to do a full-on prep. Have stuff in the fridge ready to go. Plus I cannot remember the last time I baked something, I think it was a few weeks ago before I went out of town for work.

I did not get all my cleaning done this weekend as planned, I am blaming the wasps. But I will leave that and get it done during the week as I want to focus on the kitchen stuff today.

Happy Monday Everyone.

[SassyAshley]

This morning did not start as I expected.

I struggled to get going this morning, I kept telling myself "Just 5 more minutes and I will go," "Just five more minutes." Finally, I did get up and got started.

I started by making a batch of Blueberry Muffins, I do not even know what I was doing but I looked over in the dining room to see a puddle on the floor, ugh, we had apples in this plastic strainer we store fruit in and one had gone bad and was leaking. So I cleaned that up and just as I went to open the front door to take out the garbage I heard the garbage truck which meant I had to open the garbage area. Anyone can open it but, it is heavy and awkward to open.

I come back in and went back to making muffins but thought I saw something fly by me. In all honestly since this started I swear I keep seeing them fly by me, I am a bit paranoid. So I kept working away, I wasn't being paranoid there was a wasp in the kitchen window, I disposed of it and something was telling me check the basement so down I went, just one wasp.

I finally finished the muffins, then to clean the kitchen I had to empty, reload the dishwasher and do the hand dishes. Got all of those done. Well I was going that Mom cleaned the bathroom so that is one thing off my list.

This afternoon I did manage to make my cucumber spread, spinach dip and peanut butter blossom bars.

Dinner was Baked Sausages with Mashed Potato Bake and Green Beans.

I did not get everything done but I got some of it done. Some days getting some of things done is better than getting none of the things done.

[Angela273]

We took our kids out fishing with a friend yesterday. We took fishing rods, minnow nets, and a magnet fishing rod. No one caught an actual fish, but we did catch sk s other interesting things. We put little critters into a bucket of water (baby crayfish, minnows, water beetles) and released them before we left. Ds enjoyed magnet fishing. He caught a toonie, which we put in some vinegar when we got home. He also pulled up some small pieces of scrap metal, which we disposed of.

Our twins enjoyed their birthday party last week. They each put 2/3 of their birthday money into their bank accounts and kept the rest to spend in the future. Twin girl is the spender out of our 3 children and she keeps changing her mind as to what she wants to spend her money on.

We had our garage sale last week Thursday and Friday. We sold a fair bit, but there’s a lot of leftovers still set up in our garage. We’re thinking about having another garage sale this week, obviously adding some other items.

I sold my extra garden tomatoes and extra red rhubarb. Despite using calcium based fertilizer and watering daily, I’m disappointed with the amount of tomatoes that have blossom end rot. I planted early girl tomatoes for the first time and they’ve already stopped flowering and don’t have many immature tomatoes left on the plants. Does anyone have experience with growing early girl tomatoes? Any suggestions?

I’ll be going through our school supplies and put kids’ school supply lists this week. Then we’ll know what we need to purchase before labelling everything for the fall. I prefer to have that done in advance. I head back to work on August 28.

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
Happy Tuesday that feels like a Monday.

Today is a work-from-home day which is exactly what I need as I need to organize my life.

My goal for August is to get back on track with my routines, I feel like life is upside down right now.

I need to get my sleep back on track this falling asleep around 11 and waking at 7 am does not work for my schedule.

I need to get back on track with eating, I have been skipping meals again and dinners have been a lot of quick fixes. But, one thing I have to remind myself is Dinner does not always have to be a big planned meal. Again, one extreme or the other, we have a quick fix (Nachos, Hot Dogs) or a big dinner (Lasagna, planned meal) but sometimes, something as simple as Baked Sausage, Potatoes and Veg is a great meal.

I need to get back on track with Prep, we have not had salad in a few days because I do not have the veggies prepped. But as well, I need to prep Breakfasts and Lunches and have options available. This week I have some options for Breakfasts and Lunches at home or in a branch available.

Cleaning oh my gosh, gotta stay on top of the cleaning so I do not have to spend every weekend trying to catch up and get all of the cleaning done.

I am determined to make August my month everything comes back together.

Happy Tuesday Everyone (Almost typed Monday LOL).

[Frugalbigmama]

Good Morning! Dark Cloudy day here today. That's ok. I have to work today and should go putter in the garage later.

The weather for the Kempenfest Festival was wonderful! So much walking! On the Saturday after standing for 2 sets we walked all the booths and took us over 2.5 hours. This is a huge festival! Decided to leave the Tom Cochrane concert just before everyone else did and it was smooth sailing home. (DS was going to a party and staying at his friends house so wanted to be home for the dog- and sleeping in ones own bed is always a good thing- Didn't sleep well Friday night!)

Since had to come home Saturday night and DS would be home all night Sunday decided a night at the casino to redeem all the freebies was a good idea.
free slot play that ended Sunday. free slot play that started Monday. Free room any day in August. Free pot (it was a frying pan) on Monday or Tuesday.
And won $$$$ so it was a great free night. Filled up the vehicle with gas on the way home that was 10 cents a L cheaper then home.

The kitchen was a mess last night. Was going to leave it till today but at 930pm last night I decided to clean it and I appreciate it this morning!
Fridge needs to be cleaned out so I will do that this morning. Will completely empty it and wipe it all down and then see what can be tossed/used up etc.

After a weekend of eating everything I need some good simple healthy food. Will go grab some fresh stuff later today and cook a nice dinner

[Frugalbigmama]

Fridge has been cleaned out.

Have grape tomatoes, mushrooms and a lemon to use up. Took BLSL chicken out of the freezer.
Making DS's fav- Chicken Tetrazini. Need basil but then remembered my beautiful pot of basil that I have been growing all summer

I bought blueberries and the tomatoes yesterday when I tried to go to the bank to deposit cash. When I got to the bank I realized I didn't grab my wallet that had the bank card in it! So will have to do that today.

Off to check out the upcoming flyers posted to see when I plan to shop.

[coupon girl]

My dear neighbour across the street gave me a bag of cherry tomatoes ,as i didnt do any veggie plants this year on my back veranda-due to staining it etc.

Today i went to visit my 75 year old sister-in-law (my dear older brother's(who passed away) wife .
I did the dishes for her and cleaned her livingroom ,vacuumed as she had shoulder surgery about 5 weeks ago,we chatted and laughed about my brother all in all a nice visit.

Oh and she gave me a cute plant stand ,so nice of her.

[Angela273]

I’m teaching Grades 7 and Grade 8 students to cook and bake this school year? Any suggested recipes? It is in a nut free school and our class periods are 66min long.

[harbie]

I’d like to hear some tomatoe growing advice too @Angela273 my tomatoes got blossom rot and just weren’t turning red. Very frustrating.

[Frugalbigmama]

My dear neighbour across the street gave me a bag of cherry tomatoes ,as i didnt do any veggie plants this year on my back veranda-due to staining it etc.

Today i went to visit my 75 year old sister-in-law (my dear older brother's(who passed away) wife .
I did the dishes for her and cleaned her livingroom ,vacuumed as she had shoulder surgery about 5 weeks ago,we chatted and laughed about my brother all in all a nice visit.

Oh and she gave me a cute plant stand ,so nice of her.

I enjoy cleaning someone else's house over my own! Loved cleaning the kitchen for my friend with the twins when they were newborns and she lived close to me

[Frugalbigmama]

I’d like to hear some tomatoe growing advice too @Angela273 my tomatoes got blossom rot and just weren’t turning red. Very frustrating.

I have 2 potted Cherry tomato plants and have 8 tomatoes lol. I'm not doing so great either!