December 2023 Frugal Chatter

It’s been a whirlwind month. I finished my Christmas shopping in November and continued to work long hours at my small town school. I arrived home for the beginning of my Christmas holidays on Wednesday, Dec 20. I got to town 1hr before our twins’ Christmas concert began. Today is my children’s last day of school. “Comfy Day” is their theme today. I’ll be home for 14 days. Our children will still be on Christmas holidays when I head back to work on January. Our children get 16 days off.

I had some down time yesterday. I went through my coupon bag to make sure no good coupons would accidentally expire on me at the end of the month. I’ll be at home for the first Tuesday in January, so I’ll be able to do the 10% off Sobeys sale for the first time since August. I organized the coupons to use on that shop, without knowing what will actually be on sale that week.

I’m going to spend some time over the break organizing for our 2wk Mexican vacation that we’re taking in February. I’ve already paid for the entire trip. I only have one long weekend between Christmas break and February break, so I’m trying to get some stuff organized in advance.

Hit up RCSS, WM and Safeway this morning and back home finishing my tea by 7:30am. Apparently nobody knew RCSS opened at 6 instead of 7 so there were literally 3-4 customers! I only wish I had a major shop to do. Now off to work….. have a great day everyone.

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Originally Posted by Skippy

Into week 5 of leg injury and still no noticeable improvement! I'm starting to think that perhaps the Doctor is correct and healing may be measured by months not weeks! Thankfully I can still get out with my air cast but takes twice as long to walk to corner and back.Going elsewhere is pretty much limited as it uses up too much energy.
With less than one week left before Christmas I now realise the error of my ways and should've been better prepared but alas it will all work out in the end!

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@Skippy hope things improve for you soon. On the bright side, at least it is during the colder months as opposed to the summer? However I understand your mobility concerns and if the weather gets bad, you will have to be super careful.

Thanks for all the well wishes! I just may be gaining some momentum but will need to wait and see if it lasts and that I don't do anything stupid in the meantime!
Doing what I can around the place but no shopping adventures especially now with the last minute rush! Speaking of rush I should probably start finding all the stuff I stashed as no wrapping done yet.But first I should look over my receipts to figure out just what I'm looking for!
If you're venturing out this weekend pack some patience as no doubt you will need it.
Be the blessing you would have others be to you!

P.S. The sirloin tip roast beef at No Frills for $4.44/lb till the 24th is yummers!

Our childcare provider enjoyed coming to our house early to bake buns and butter tarts recently. Our freezer was then full to the top. I spent a little time organizing the chest freezer and meal planning for the next few days.
We had burgers for supper tonight.
We’ll have steak and mushrooms tomorrow.
Roast ham for Christmas.

Good Morning Everyone,
Change in plans for today, originally we were going to go see family but the weather is not cooperating. We did get some freezing rain overnight and it was just I think snowing, not sure if it was just snow or had ice mixed in. So to be safe plans have been postponed.

Yesterday I got the Banana Bread Loaves and Brownies made for my Christmas gifts, still need to make the Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough and the dessert for Christmas. One small issue, I cannot find my tart pan, I thought it was in the Dining Room, nope, maybe in the Basement, nope. So now do I try to make it without a tart pan or do I come up with a plan B?

I am scaling back this year and only making one dessert as there will be fewer people this year plus we have a few who are watching what they are eating, they will indulge a little but I do not want to bring a ton of desserts home with me. So, I am just making one thing this year.

Trying to find my ambition, I did not sleep well last night and it causing me to be a little blah today but there is a lot to get done.

Happy Saturday Everyone.

Good morning all. Off until Wednesday with Dh :excited::excited::excited:.

Starting the morning with a walk in the peekaboo sunshine ( very small amounts but I’ll take it), hitting the tread for a run and then I’m off to see if I can find my annual daytimer/planner from Homesense. Splurging today with a Starbucks.

Grabbed some basics yesterday ( onions, sweet potatoes romaine) cashed in $40 in points OOP was $$2 and change. All stocked up and I’ll be making split pea and lentil soup tonight. Warm and cozy meal.

Have a FANTASTIC day everyone.

I am a woman on a mission. I am determined to get the Dining Room set up the best I can. It won't be 100% because we won't be able to get rid of the Dining Room Table but I am going to make it a functional space.

I had to move some stuff around to make room for the second set of shelves which was tricky because I cannot move the corner unit until I can move the drawer thing which I cannot move until the table is gone. WOW, this is the perfect picture of my life always about 10 things I have to do first before I can do what I want/need to do.

But, I was able to move the Sideboard down to make just enough room to put the second set of shelves on the wall. So once I had the space I built the second set of shelves. They will need to move once the corner unit moves but now I have space to put everything away.

Now the plan is after lunch we will start sorting everything and decide what we will keep and what will go. I will admit this is the part I am not looking forward to. One it is overwhelming, two we do not always agree on what should stay and what should go. So we shall see, hoping it will be a smooth process but only time will tell.

I am quite proud of myself. I started working on my Homemade Christmas Gifts yesterday and I had a plan, a good plan but in typical Ashley fashion I started second-guessing myself, was I making enough?

Last night when I went to bed I started remembering some other recipes I saw and could make and started adding to my plan. But today, I decided no, I am not going overboard, I am keeping to my original plan and keeping it realistic. So everyone will be getting:
Banana Loaves
Brownies
Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough for their Freezer, they can bake it off when they want them.
A Jar of Pumpkin Butter I pulled from the freezer.

Then I had to figure out dessert, I had a plan but I cannot find out Tart pan anywhere and I was not buying a new one. I was going to try to make my original dessert in a Pie Plate and try to lift it out but after going down the Pinterest Rabbit Hole, I found a different dessert, the only issue was, that I was short on the Chocolate Crumbs for the base. So the Chocolate Peanut Butter Pie became a Chocolate Peanut Butter Cheesecake.

Also a first-ever, It is the 23rd and I am ready for Christmas, I just have to pack everything up tomorrow and I am good to go. This has never happened, I usually still have things to make or decorations to do. I normally spend Christmas Eve Day running in circles trying to finish everything up.

I may actually get a chance to work on the Dining Room tomorrow. I would really like to get it done as far as I can in the next couple of days so I can move on to the Living Room before the end of Shutdown. I did work on it a bit this afternoon before finishing the gifts. I put on some Christmas Movies and worked away.

Now, it is time for bed, so tired.

Thursday i had a sore throat,poor little miss cara was sick and we babysat wed thur.I am knocking this cold out of me .

Today went to visit my hubbys brother and his wife they had us for supper it was a frozen pizza from costco that is always sold out -she told me deep dish .It was yummy .

I gave them a gift for hubbys sister who is on disability ,money and a few personal items .

Hope you feel better @coupon girl

No luck finding my planner :(. 3 different Homesense locations and nothing. Maybe they’ll get some before Dec 31st :shrug:.

Off to bed to get up early tomorrow :cheesygrin:

Oh no @coupon girl , hope you feel better soon.

Good Morning Everyone,
Up early this morning, was wide awake at 5 and not complaining. This morning I savoured the nice quiet morning, sometimes silence is a wonderful thing.

It feel very weird to be ready for Christmas, normally I should be running around packaging gifts, decorating desserts and honestly, in a bit of a panic but instead I am curled in a blanket on the couch because I do not know why, but I am freezing today. It isn't that cold out but I am frozen.

Thinking I might make a batch of Overnight Cinnamon Buns I can pop in the oven tomorrow for Breakfast.

Merry Christmas Eve and Happy Sunday Everyone.

Merry Christmas!

Yesterday I found Bone-in Skinless Chicken breast for $2LB. Since I just cleaned/organized the freezer I knew I had room so bought 6 packages. Wrapped up each breast and put in large freezer bags so we can just pull out what we need. I can't leave behind a good chicken deal since it is our main protein. They had sirloin roasts on too but we have lots and just don't seem to eat that as often.

We have an annual family gathering this afternoon/evening. Popped out to fill the gas tank this morning. Happy gas dropped 9 cents! Cleaned out the car.
Have all the gifts ready to take with us. ( Just for Grandma and the little kids- we have done it this way for years and it is so nice and stress free!)
I am the DD like usual. Happy the weather is going to be ok for traveling this year. Like many last year- we didn't go because of the weather :(

Dinner tomorrow night at friends house. Another stress free evening!

I stopped at GT this morning for coffee creamer and hamburger buns. Have homemade patties in the freezer so wanted to have the buns ready for a night when we want a simple dinner with no plan. With this mild weather plan to bbq a few nights next week!

Have a wonderful Christmas Eve :)