2024 March Frugal Chatter (thoughts of Spring's approach)

[flemeth]

So grateful for dental coverage, just a cleaning and the x-ray was over $300.00 yesterday, but nice to to have that my very long to do list.
I need to post a bunch of stuff to give away. Our wonderful pup passed away a month ago and I have been procrastinating but its time to gift his stuff. The kids are keeping a few things but we have no immediate plans for a new dog so someone else can love the stuff, I have a friend that can use all the food and snacks so I will drop the stuff to her on the weekend.

@lilo0003 (((HUGS)))). I can’t imagine how difficult it is to give away your fur baby stuff.

[coupon girl]

Sassy -sorry for your loss.

[Ciel21]

Took my friend to timmies and treated her to lunch -she had a roast beef sandwich and coffee i had chicken soup(which gave me heartburn so i wont buy that again) cost $15.00 not bad .

Then she said ohh lets go that store "rooms and spaces" well there was paper on the door and a sign -closed jan 27/24 due to tenant no paying their rent -closed by landlord.Well that was only in there about 5 months i think.

That explains the absence of the location from the website in Feb and March. There was to be a Senior's Day event on Jan.31. The company that owns Rooms+Spaces is a local one in the industrial park. I knew that location on the Mtn was still open in Dec as my bus pulled into the transit station on the way to collect Xmas gifts at the Rec park.

[Ciel21]

@coupon girl, interesting on the Rooms and Spaces, ours also closed for unpaid rent. It was funny (not that they closed but) I was in Costco earlier that day and saw the store coming out and thought I really have not heard much about them since they opened and later that night my Bro shared an article that they had closed.

Step-Mom went in and said it was nothing special.

Seems company is keeping one Ontario store open in Brantford ON and one in Edmonton AB to serve the country. I could literally spend $$$ on Joseph Joseph wants. That's why I keep checking the site for sales and stock. Maybe I should ask my friend for a trip to the store!

There is a March 27 Senior's Day event posted, 10% off in-store purchase only. Get ready ON & AB! Sites-rns-ca-Site (roomsandspaces.ca)

[Ciel21]

March 14 is PI (3.14) day so look for savoury or sweet pie deals in flyers.
Longo's March 7-13 flyer shows $9.99 St. Hubert's and Montana's savoury pies on sale *save $3*. Return of Turkey or Porchetta feast offers for Easter. Prices go up on March 11. Spring Experience magazine should be out in stores this week.

Their 2 for $4 pasta (Italpasta, 900g) deal has gone up to 2 for $5 but now includes gluten-free pasta (340g).

Just checking the website for The Amazing Home stores and the website is closed. Uh oh, I will report any store news changes when I check the store out. Instagram account has not been updated in months. It was open last month...

[coupon girl]

Today stopped at lococos on the way to my sons got
(2) strawberries 1.99 one for me one for my son 's family.
plus red delicious apples were .99 a pound so 1.99

[Ciel21]

Giant Tiger has Swiss Chalet pies beef or chicken on for $6.97. Yes, I got one chicken pie. Spent over 30min exploring clothing because the quality of most items is worsening (beware the clearance racks for pants and some tops-too sheer and rarely any useful pockets, if any!). There are even $10 tops that are printed on netting fabric! Also weird-store is carrying some racks of clothing with brands not usually found in-store plus the tags are not GT ones, they are yellow and white ones with hand-printed $5, $10 or whatever pricing. Either there are a lot of other store returns being made at my GT or the manager is padding stock with some cheap pallets of clothing. Example: a very sheer light silvery grey Mexx v-neck women's top was on one round rack. That brand is sold at Walmart...and I did not even stop at my supercentre on the way home. I'll pop in tomorrow at Walmart because I need the copy paper and packing tape. The surplus store has one pkg of colour copy paper @500 sheets, 28lb for $11 something. Nope, pass.

Surplus store is very much open and playing a rotation of certain 80s pop tunes for the middle-aged shoppers that were in the store. $5 per item family apparel ( a teeny section of clothing items are not included) deal is worth the effort as long as you are not shopping for food items or non-clothing things, as time does go by *as I discovered while digging through top of box one*. There are three huge cardboard boxes and racks in different areas on both sides of the store-some clothing is terrible quality and some clothing is actually decent (Amazon essentials fleeced-lined ski type pants-saw black, grass green and orange-red but not in large or bigger sizes; viscose blend women's cardigan and lots of random things like kids' sandals in one box). I was stunned to see a few kids Fifa 2022 shirts (with official tags; guess what, shirts were made in Guatemala) and a couple of mens ts.
Star Wars fans who wear 5x-there are at least 3 of the navy shirt with A Long Time Ago in a Galaxy Far away print and two very light gray Baby Grogu (image is a tad off of the series' puppet) in his hoverpod (illustration, not a photo image). For $5 apiece! I also saw a black 2x Disney Mickey Mouse print t-shirt-not sure if it was women's or men's.

Target fans-store still has 3T Fair Isle print on black/red onesie sleepers and 2T versions print on white. There are also a few red/black Buffalo check rolls (tree skirt? placemats?) with the products at the storefront by the window and the middle of the back wall where the baby gear accessories and random baby food/gadgets are. I did spot a few Carter's baby journals (some had orange $3 stickers) for parents wanting to record milestones of the little ones in their lives at the back and one at the front of the store. One Oxo Tot stick and stay section plate *white plate/navy suction bottom* is rather messy *tossed in bin?* and priced at $12. New ones retail for $19.99 on AMazon (yes, the surplus store has lots of Amazon product stickers on its merchandise).

Random comments on Oxo Tot product pricing-Indigo recently cleared out stock of the freezer trays at $4 each but you had to buy 2 trays at a time (sold out online). Other stores did sell the tray individually, currently at about $12.99 each. The bottle drying rack by OT is selling well above $40 in Canada (it used to be $32-36, with occasional sale price under $29) now but on the US Bed Bath and Beyond site, the rack plus a bottle brush are selling together for $25 US. How is that possible? US /Cda pricing was about $5 apart before the US and Cdn chains went into bankruptcy proceedings in 2023.

Snapple Zero Sugar Peach or regular teas are $1 per bottle. They are in different areas of the store and on a shelf under the mixers on the west wall. REcent expiry dates too-my bottle has a Mar 17/24 date! Last time, my bottles had July 2023 dates.

Longo's Italpasta offer-the two gluten-free pastas (340g)on the shelf are fusilli and rotini. Price is 2 for $5 tonight and lasts until March 20/24. The regular pasta is in 900g packages, so a decent deal. I forgot to look for the Spring Experience magazine when I did not see one at the checkout lane. Next time...

It seems that Portia Drive is being extended towards Mason Drive where the Toyota dealership is (pylons and construction vehicles are blocking the former roundabout, now removed, just past the back parking area of the plaza). Not sure what might be built in the area but suddenly the stage 1 of the upcoming Garner Rd closure makes sense. There must be water infrastructure on the road extension that is going to connect to Garner Rd W in the near future.

[walkonby]

The stars have aligned for me in a long while. NF has Lactancia butter ( 454 grams ) on for $4.99 and my personal offer is for 1,200 points on each pound! ( limit of 5 ).
Daniel Day Lewis would scream " Let there be butter ! " lol.

[Frugalbigmama]

Good Morning Sunshine!

Let's get this work day out of the way because we start vacation at 4pm today!!!
Packed and ready to go! Will shower at 5 and blow out my hair. Then we are heading to my sister's for the night. Thinking we are leaving at 6am for the airport.

Went out for dinner with my friend last night. Will miss her while I am away as I don't plan to be on my phone at all. She will fill me in on all the town gossip I miss!

Wishing you all a fun and safe March Break!

[coupon girl]

Frugalbigmama have a nice vacation .My daughter is coming with Sebastian tonight around 8.00 p.m to spend the night before they fly out of buffalo on friday morning for their march vacation.

So i will have the bed ready for her,all freshly made.

Babysit tonight til 7.30 as hubby takes Ashlyn to math tudoring from 6-7.

I called hubbys sister she has no one to take her to an appt on monday ,so i will she is on disability so doesnt have much .After the dentist i will take her into giant tiger and buy her a top and a few groceries .I cant wait to check out giant tiger i havent been there in awhile.

[harbie]

It’s a stick close to home kinda day here for me today. I had my blood work done yesterday after work and today is the 24 hr collection for my urologist. Yay! Not!!! I know it could be worse but I’m grossed out by having to store it in the fridge (TMI).

I'm about to hit the tread in hopes of sweating it out instead .

Once again I didn’t see much of anything in the flyers but I need some fresh veggies so i5 will be more of a “who has the best quality” kinda thing.

Also heading out for a local walk while sun is out since yesterday morning we had some snow falling and the rains are coming back

Enjoy your day everyone

[Ciel21]

I would be keen to know of the sizing ranges at the GT store you go to for women's clothing. Ancaster store has one or none of some sizes in certain styles in the flyer and too many mediums and random sizes of styles I do not like. Hope you find some splendid finds on the sales racks!

I completely forgot about the indoor pillow I wanted. Better remember today.

[HermanH]

Rescued 11x cans of fruit cocktail and a Clif bar from the garbage.

[flemeth]

Good Morning Sunshine!

Let's get this work day out of the way because we start vacation at 4pm today!!!
Packed and ready to go! Will shower at 5 and blow out my hair. Then we are heading to my sister's for the night. Thinking we are leaving at 6am for the airport.

Went out for dinner with my friend last night. Will miss her while I am away as I don't plan to be on my phone at all. She will fill me in on all the town gossip I miss!

Wishing you all a fun and safe March Break!

@Frugalbigmama have a wonderful vacation

[harbie]

Well that was an expensive morning. I dropped my iPad ( which I've done before ) and it's been fine but not this time. I smashed the screen . The good part is we already had a new one coming on Friday but it still stinks. Hopefully it doesn't cost too much to fix it so we can use it as a back up.

Had a great run this morning and now it's time to tackle the laundry and plan tonight's dinner.