2024 April Frugal Chatter Thread (here comes the sunshine)

[Ciel21]

Cobbler was in the oven before 1pm. Let's say that a 9" round baking pan without a rimmed sheet under the pan would have been a disaster (consider using a high wall cast iron pot or larger baking dish square or otherwise with high sides (I may try the tube pan next time)). I thought of the sheet and sure enough towards the 20min mark, some of that pricey Rolling Meadow butter oozed up and over the pan edge (as the sheet was warped and slightly tilted). Result: the edge of cobbler has the crispy, finely laced edge pulled away from the pan like those crumble dessert in a heated Hungry Man frozen meal. Underside of cobbler is rather gummy. I used only two Granny Smith apples, not 2 cups of chopped apple. The fruit-I used frozen berries from a smoothie pack (took out strawberries) with the apples, brown sugar and cinnamon (instructions don't mention when to add the spice in so I chose with the apples). I'd recommend stewing the fruit enough that the liquid is mostly reduced. I did not do that so after 10min, apples were still sort of crisp and I had lots of berry liquid. Did not think to strain out most of the liquid before ladling the fruit mixture into the pan with its ring of melted butter. I did hold back on the liquid when trying to get the last 1/2 cup of fruit out. Did not have 2 tsp of fresh rosemary so ground 1 tsp of the dried rosemary for the recipe.

Overall impression-this cobbler is a wetter version of the apple-cranberry coffee cake I usually make. I think I'd cut the brown sugar down to 1/4 cup unless the fruit was not sweet and maybe the white sugar to 1/2 cup. The cobbler is achingly sweet but perfect for "need carbs" rainy day.

Did some branch collecting thanks to the wild rain storm between 4:30 and 5:00am this morning. There was rain after midnight and later but when the lightning/booming started, I felt like someone was hosing down the windows on purpose and causing the water to lash in waves. At least the thunder did not sound like it was just metres off the ground this time! Managed to fall asleep shortly afterwards.

Received a scam credit card voice mail with supposed US toll-free number yesterday. Found 4 other reports for that number yesterday online. Got another voice mail (no number) this morning about two supposed charges and options to press 1, another number or zero. That's a tipoff someone is trying to dial out of a phone network and ring up long distance calling charges. If the weather holds, I'd like to check with the bank to make sure there is no fake charges run through the account.

Was busy looking at photos sent to me and was printing off most of them. Ran out of photo paper and need more ink. I certainly know how to use up printing supplies! Have to wait for Friday to restock supplies.

Having hot flash two. Need a cold beverage and to pull out vegetable scraps/celery for that broth session! Smells quite lovely in the kitchen today and I feel mostly confident rather than a bundle of nerves. Temperatures are on the rise next week, so get ice cube trays and beverages ready. But first, snow is on the way... tomorrow, tomorrow, I love you tomorrow, You are only a day away...

[Ciel21]

@coupon girl Thanks for the family resemblance response! I just saw a cousin for the first time in one photo and he takes after his late father in looks but not height, while his brother is more like their late mother (but has their father's height).

[Ciel21]

I looked at the Joy of Cooking book and it said I needed 1-1/2 to 2 times the volume of water to vegetables. Oops. I have a 4L wide pot that held about 3 lbs of veggies, a wire tea ball with some dried rosemary, old parsley roots and tops (the tops were half gone but I decided to get any flavour I could out of them) and 2.75L of water. I have about 5-6 cups of cooked broth with medium brown colour and a tinge of orange. Had I allowed the veggies to cool more (not me, wanted things out the door), I could have captured about 1/2 cup more broth.

About an hour of simmering and I can taste about 4 different flavours (sweet potato, parsley, celery and something else) before I add salt. Put some broth into a mug to sip today, tomorrow and Friday morning if anything's left. I have been enjoying sweets a little too much this week and I could use some salt/electrolytes for a change.

Am eyeing some infant items on the Snuggle Bugz website. Never hurts to get an idea of pricing and store pickup availability during a sale.

Second day of rain and I'm mad at myself for not putting the car outside to help wash off the grime for free. All of you who have rain barrels outside in Ontario, how good are the barrels at capturing the rain for gardening? Our prior barrels never seemed to collect much but I blame the setup and fact our downspouts were too low to make more use of the screened barrel tops for capture. In case we have overly warm April days, the water catch could help with vegetable, flower and lawn seeding efforts and hydration. I'm waiting for 10C weather before placing watering cans outside.

No flyers came in the mail today-only addressed mail.

[Shwa Girl]

@walkonby , sending good wishes for the upcoming surgery.
Suggestion: ask them to give you your pain meds prescription before you leave the surgical place. Then get a family member to go and fill the prescription and bring it back to the surgical place. So you can go directly home and use these meds, as soon as needed. May help with faster healing.

[Frugalbigmama]

@walkonby, sending good wishes for the upcoming surgery.
Suggestion: ask them to give you your pain meds prescription before you leave the surgical place. Then get a family member to go and fill the prescription and bring it back to the surgical place. So you can go directly home and use these meds, as soon as needed. May help with faster healing.

Good Advice! I remember when my oldest had his wisdom teeth out they gave me the script after and there was no way I could leave him alone (or in a parked car alone) he was so drugged up! I had to call my mom to meet us at the pharmacy on the way home so I could get the script and then take him home!

[Frugalbigmama]

Yeah it's Thursday! Snow day for the kids in our area. Area near me is out of power and told 18-24 hrs before they will have it back.
I shoveled the driveway- it was heavy and wet but was able to push it easily enough.
Now enjoying my coffee

Didn't make it out last night for the last day of sale stuff I wanted. No big deal. Money saved since it really wasn't anything we had to have.
I should be pulling stuff from the freezer to use up but thinking DS needs homemade mac and cheese. Will see if I feel like messing up the kitchen

I did a load of laundry yesterday afternoon and almost forgot about it. DS brought it up to the spare room for me to hang to dry before bed. So that should be ready to put away later today.

Off to load my PC pts and see what deals are to be had!

Have a fantastic day!

[harbie]

Good morning everyone. Still feeling the effects of yesterday’s crazy work day. Once again I got rerouted due to a fatal one car accident on the exit I needed to take! I’m actually sure it doesn’t happen more often with the insane rate of speed people drive the hwy and take that exit. My normal 45 min commute took 2 hrs

Now it’s full time prep for me. I’ve made a HUGE batch of split pea and lentil soup that’s ready for the freezer, 1 banana bread sliced in the freezer ( probably going to make another), pre op blood work and tests done this morning at the hospital and done 1 load of towels.

Today's plan is to prep black bean burgers and I’ll try another banana bread since I need a few things for the energy balls and other meals.

Off to look at the flyers……


Oh and I need to get the garden sorted. The plan is for tomorrow to plant radishes and if the green onions are in store yet I’ll just plan it all out. My garlic is doing wonderfully.

Enjoy your Thursday

[coupon girl]

I just looked at my rbc credit card activity and yes i got the 300 points from spending $14 at Mcdonalds .See walkonby we both got it.

Then i noticed i got 250 points for shopping dollarama and using my credit card

[lizzie bargain]

Off for a Panama canal cruise with my sister tomorrow-nothing frugal about that but with the snow coming down today I am looking forward to it.

[Ciel21]

It looks like Ottawa and Montreal got the snow that the rest of us in Southern Ontario thought might land here. Third day of rain. Friday will repeat so I'm indoors. @harbie I'm on your team banana loaf-had to use 3 ripe bananas for first loaf. I've used the last of my eggs so I'll have to put aquafaba to the test as egg substitute for loaf 2 tomorrow. Plan to freeze the second loaf as I am working my way through today's baking.

Managed to finish my vegetable soup today, am pecking at the supersweet cobbler and had tuna fish on bread with pickle slices. Am about to make a mug of tea as it will help me from cooking pasta and continuing to eat! Spent many hours this afternoon virtual shopping...bbq accessories! I don't barbecue but I spotted some things I would not mind to see (printed off cart lists and I don't have $300+ for them). There's a photo contest at one store that I will post. Then I was off looking at Indigo (I will order one thing for a gift tomorrow but have no idea for second item; wait for it, I then switched to baby gear browsing). It's very apparent that Indigo is getting out of the baby gear lifestyle merchandise but not all gifts for kids/babies (seasonal items/some apparel). There's one stroller that was cut to $250 but of course I cannot locate a store that has one. Most likely the vendor discontinued sales at the site so if the distribution centre had any stock in the warehouse, the price was cut to move it. Anyone need an Uppababy snack tray for Vista stroller ? It is just under 1/2 off ($32.50)and available at Square One Indigo in Mississauga.

It's not really apparent what the birthday deals are at Snuggle Bugz. You will need to spot a black banner with Birthday Deal to locate the deal. Otherwise some baby strollers, wagons and other gear have various sales ending dates (Sunday or later) for current specials. The one thing I had hoped would be on sale today is not and I checked the competitor's site too and same regular retail price there as well.

Did anyone shop IDLF collection at Uniqlo today? First day of sale started today.

[Ciel21]

Off for a Panama canal cruise with my sister tomorrow-nothing frugal about that but with the snow coming down today I am looking forward to it.

Bon voyage! Just keep aware of weather news and forecasts on your vacation. I'll be keen to know if the drought in the area is ongoing or has abated.

[Ciel21]

I just looked at my rbc credit card activity and yes i got the 300 points from spending $14 at Mcdonalds .See walkonby we both got it.

Then i noticed i got 250 points for shopping dollarama and using my credit card

Nice points tallies!

[Ciel21]

Yeah it's Thursday! Snow day for the kids in our area. Area near me is out of power and told 18-24 hrs before they will have it back.
I shoveled the driveway- it was heavy and wet but was able to push it easily enough.
Now enjoying my coffee

Didn't make it out last night for the last day of sale stuff I wanted. No big deal. Money saved since it really wasn't anything we had to have.
I should be pulling stuff from the freezer to use up but thinking DS needs homemade mac and cheese. Will see if I feel like messing up the kitchen

I did a load of laundry yesterday afternoon and almost forgot about it. DS brought it up to the spare room for me to hang to dry before bed. So that should be ready to put away later today.

Off to load my PC pts and see what deals are to be had!

Have a fantastic day!

I need your gung-ho energy! And you gave the snow a workout to boot...! You aced snow day

[Ciel21]

It was snowing around 9:30pm after I got off the phone! Still snowing but very lightly and wetly.

Factory Direct is in its last days of the liquidation sale. Only locations remain open: Brampton, kitchener and Oshawa. Saw a few At&T corded phones in the offerings. https://www.factorydirect.ca/store-locator

[HermanH]

Alas, my (new) neighbour cut down the apple tree from which I was able to get 1500lb of fruit, some years.