2024 April Frugal Chatter Thread (here comes the sunshine)

[Frugalbigmama]

Good Morning! Another sunny start to the day!

Enjoying my coffee and planning my work day. Thinking it will be a very quiet day. Which is good since I need to re-arrange/clean my office so that will get done today! I need someone to move an end table from the garage to my office. Will put my printer on that ( I think it will fit!) I have a new in box printer cart but haven't put together yet.... Then I can have my large desk top back.

Looked at the forecast and Monday looks like a nice sunny day so I booked it off! Have so much vacation/PTO time to use up this year.
A sunny Monday hike sounds like a great plan!

Have a wonderful day!

[harbie]

It’s been a super frugal week plus for me. The only purchases in a little over a week was crackers and apple juice the day I got home since I needed food in order to take my meds otherwise I wouldn’t have eaten anything.

Sun is shining so I’ll take another walk today. It’s frustrating not to be able to do the things I normally do. Oh how I miss working out, but this time I’m following drs orders 100%. Can’t wait for Friday

[walkonby]

It’s been a super frugal week plus for me. The only purchases in a little over a week was crackers and apple juice the day I got home since I needed food in order to take my meds otherwise I wouldn’t have eaten anything.

Sun is shining so I’ll take another walk today. It’s frustrating not to be able to do the things I normally do. Oh how I miss working out, but this time I’m following drs orders 100%. Can’t wait for Friday

@harbie !! Those are words I have never spoken....( " Oh how I miss working out " ) , however, I love your go get'em attitude. I have 6 more sleeps until my own knee surgery.

[coupon girl]

Harbie one day at a time .Super frugal week for me too.

I had a test today and on wednesday i need to go for bloodwork I i have waited 2 weeks dont want to put this off .So no grocery shopping for me til friday or the weekend.

[harbie]

@walkonby you truly miss movement when you’re super restricted

[SassyAshley]

I will admit, I am with @walkonby I have never missed working out although I wish I could say different (I really need to get more movement in my life).

But I will admit for me after my surgery it was the normal things like not being able to do laundry (because I couldn't lift) or washing dishes (standing at the sink was painful) drove me insane especially when they extended my restrictions.

I remember people telling me enjoy that someone else has to do it, relax but nope, drove me insane that I couldn't just do what I normally do especially the things you don't even think about doing.

[Frugalbigmama]

Good Morning. Wet rainy start to the day here.

Kitchen is clean. Coffee is made. Slow start to my work day. Have a few to do's on my list.

Have to pop out and get fresh buns and then I can pack up the food for my oldest.

Need to pop to the bank for a deposit at some point. Maybe the rainy day is the day to go to get parking and less people out.

Have a great day!

[Frugalbigmama]

Just looked over the upcoming Ontario sale flyers

Wal-mart -$1.94 3pk romaine! Woohoo! I am all over that! .94 mushrooms

Food Basics $1.88 for strawberries and 2lb bag lemons. .88lb pears

No Frills $3.88 4lb bag of mandarins. .88lb tomatoes .88 green onion .88 Allen's juice (for my back to school food bank donation)

Loblaws has the club pack of Toilet paper on for $14.99. Thinking I will redeem points for a few and then I won't have to worry about TP!

Will be a simple shopping week for fresh stuff only which is what I need to do and start using up some freezer stuff.

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
As @Frugalbigmama said there are some good deals to be had this week on fresh stuff. I have not written my official list yet but I took a quick scroll through the flyers before I got up. Not sure if it was the rain coming in or what but my bed seemed extra comfy this morning and I did not want to leave it so I scrolled the flyers on my phone LOL.

It started raining here just after 7 and it is showing will keep raining until sometime Friday. Hoping this changes as this weather has my sinuses telling me they aren't happy. A lot of sinus pressure today.

I am trying to use this week to get back on track, it does look like it will be a full work from home week, originally I thought I might have to go into a branch tomorrow but well things change. So I am taking this opportunity to catch up on all the things, work, house work, dinners. Yep dinners have been a challenge a lot of eating at 7 or 7:30 which means I eat and go to bed (not good).

I have stopped meal planning but I need to get back on track with that. Last night I made Mozzarella Chicken (OH MY GOSH this dish screams summer to me) because we had some leftover pasta to use up and some Cherry Tomatoes that needed to be used.

Tonight I am not sure yet, I think a huge part of my problem right now is, I just have no cravings. There is no, OH that sounds good or OH we haven't have this in a while. But I am sure I will figure it out, we are pretty much stocked up on everything except Fries, my No Frills has had no "normal" fries for months all they have is the speciality ones what come with the speciality Price Tag. I did grab some Wal-Mart ones but they weren't the best. But I am stocked on Potatoes so I could do homemade fries. I just like the option if I need a quick side dish, Oven Fries are just so quick where is homemade take time.

Happy Wednesday Everyone.

[coupon girl]

Had blood work done today ,hubby had to drive me as i couldnt drive for 24 hours after my test yesterday.

No babysitting today as little cara has streph throat she is on meds (my daughter-in-law took off work sick day),i cant wait for my little granddaughter to feel better and have her operation .Every month she has been sick the past 4 months .

Dont know where i will go for groceries this week as i dont have a cell phone ,maybe i may go to food basics they seem to have a lot on sale .

[Ciel21]

I saw two different flyers showing Heinz picnic packs of condiments so that is an encouraging sign! Have to still find the digital Giant Tiger flyer to see what was not in the little flyer that came in the mail. I am getting in the habit of using that app website where I can put things on a shopping list to print out. That way I can remember specials if I get a chance to pop into stores and not keep random lists.

Last night, I started printing off photos to be sent out to relatives. Then I stopped because one set of pics need direction from Mom (I have less than 30 photos pages left at this time). I understood my brother had forwarded photos by phone but that one relative is key to sending on photos to people Mom got to see after decades (5 not seen in decades); it'd be nice to give them hard copies of their short visit. Have to see if there's enough black ink in the printer. I had about 1/2 of a colour ink cartridge left after stopping.
Could not go online this morning. Took the ethernet connection off tv as Internet has been sluggish. The rainy afternoon has not been helpful as upload/download speed has been slow or hanging up on me (frozen screen-fun times).

Mom had a strange headache last night plus watering eye. It seems not to have been triggered by berries (we had some strawberries she had purchased that day) but by subtle residual baby detergent scent on my coat and other apparel laundered with our unscented detergent last week prior to her return. When Mom asked about a sweet smell and possible cleaner use, I had to think and realized that my coat is definitely offgassing some of the baby detergent (I wanted to use it up and recycle the bottle) because I can notice the scent every so often. I forgot about washing the coat last week. Now I understand why she was frustrated last year when I kept buying baby shampoo on sale in the pump format. The J&J brand original shampoo does have a similar sweet smell to the baby detergent.

I was watching both cooking shows this morning on French CBC and saw a commercial about a 100 days prior to Paris Games special, that will air tomorrow at 8pm. Might make for interesting preparation for Summer Games viewing in July!

[Frugalbigmama]

Happy Thursday! Almost Friday Rain again.

Good day to clean the kitchen and fridge and then go shopping to stock up on fresh stuff.

Was thinking to go to Costco for propane tonight and then dinner at Casino and use free slot play. Could turn the free slot play into $ to pay for the propane and top up the gas tank once back home Will see what the weather is like later today.

Have clean laundry to put away. Oldest DS needed towels for his roadtrip so I did a load yesterday so he could take some. I should do a load of my yoga pants/tanks and hang to dry. Adding that to the list!

Have a great day!

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
Wet day here but it is not raining so that is good but some sun would be awesome, I know wishful thinking.

Generally I am an overthinker that is me, I can talk myself out of almost anything but yesterday I was working on something for work and before I knew it I sent out an email and made a call saying, I want to scrap our current training plan and redo it before the next new staff member starts. I think there were some "um, has she lost it moments." but in the end they agreed. So now I am spinning a little bit because it is a big undertaking but I know it will be amazing when I am done.

But before we get to the end, I will admit, I spun hard. My own insecurities came out, I wanted it to be perfect and amazing and then felt like I was going to miss stuff. Growing up, I so badly wanted to find that one thing I was good at that was mine, sports were not my thing, school nope, I used to work my butt off and did not get the results vs some in my fam who put in little effort and were always perfect. So I still have that, I need to achieve perfection feelings but I also have to remind myself especially when it comes to training it is a moving target and tweaks will be needed.

I was going to go grocery shopping today but the more I thought it, the more I think I will put it off. Most of what I plan to pick up this week (apples, cucumbers, green onions, lemons) we have some older ones we need to use up first so I think I will hold off.

Although I do have a want to get out of the house so who knows what will happen.

Happy Thursday Everyone.

[Ciel21]

Canadian Tire shoppers! Longos has $100 CT gc discounted 10% off this flyer and CT has its promo on $200 spend in-store TODAY only so there's a chance to get a bit ahead on the CT shop. CT is giving $30 promo card on in-store shop plus if you are a Triangle Rewards member, you score $20 bonus CT money (today only). @lilo0003 you have Longos in your area!

Posted the offer in the gift card thread. Was looking at Longos well after I lingered over a sold out online raised garden bed (*planter actually) on from Giant Tiger's flyer. $70, has a lower shelf and is without wheels. Only the Burlington GT store seems to have one in-store-not any other store in the Hamilton area. Could make an easy patio planter for someone who can no longer kneel by a garden at ground level.

Red Lobster in the US is in the news as parent company may be filing for bankruptcy. See News thread or Gift Card deal thread-don't want anyone to miss out on using any remaining gift cards in case the Canadian restaurants follow suit and limit or outright refuse gift cards.

This weather-is comfortable for moving around but not for going up a ladder. Will figure out other home tasks. The fridge (freezer section) sounds like a distant vacuum truck aka streetsweeper unit when it is operating (just over 10 years old). Want that hum drone to leave immediately--it's causing anxiety everytime I hear it.

Would love to see a few more grocery flyers in the mailbox today-that would be joyous!

[harbie]

Happy Thursday!

Postop checkup and subsequent stent removal has been moved up a day. Thank goodness. I called as it was getting to be too much extreme discomfort and they made it happen. I’m a bit nervous about it but I need it out.

Hopefully I can get back to more normal life and routine. I’m going crazy!!!

We decided to do a family vacay at the end of May. Our taxes came back and instead of saving or reinventing it like we ALWAYS do we chose to make some memories.

So we start by getting my hair done (500km away) and then head to Dh’s biological brothers and meet up with his family and one of the step brothers and his family. Then we drive another 5 hours to meet up with my mom and dad and my brother and SIL.

We have had a strained relationship (my bro and I) for over 9 years and things are trying to be worked out. I sent out the invite and I was surprised they accepted. Anyways it will be fun. I will place a PC order for when we arrive and make 90% of our meals to cut costs.