2024-05 May Frugal Chatter

[HermanH]

Looks like I have the honour of starting another monthly Chatter Thread!

This is the proposed month of Loblaw Boycott. While I can empathize with everyday Canadians about the high price of groceries, I can understand why grocery giants treat us the way they do. We simply do not deserve any better treatment.

I was shopping around for the best price of CLR and visited Home Depot, RCSS, and, lastly, Walmart. At Walmart, I saw a lady checking out the price of CLR, too. I told her what I was doing and that the price of generic CLR was cheapest at RCSS. She thanked me and said that the price of gas would probably be more than the $1 savings. (RCSS is 300m away.) Of course, it is her time and money to spend as she pleases. She just couldn't be bothered.

Earlier last week, I was at Freshco buying 6x honeydew melons. As I was bagging my purchase, the next lady-in-line behind me asked if there was a special. I told her that you could price-match the melons and it came to approximately $0.50/pound. She asked her son if they could go back and get one. He said, 'No, let's just go.' He couldn't be bothered to take the time and effort to walk 50m, in the same darned building, and go get a melon for his mother. I was about to offer her one of mine and just go back to get another one for myself, but then I thought to myself, "if her own flesh and blood treats her like this and is too lazy to expend even that minute effort, why should I do anything to reward him?"

That indifference is why the grocery giants abuse us and no 'boycott' tantrum will ever change it.

[harbie]

Good morning.

1 week left before I’m back to work.

I had some things that needed purchasing and got some really good deals.

We ordered our hitch which will be here in 1 week and installed the next day.

We purchased our Thule bike rack. The cheapest I have found was $449.99 plus $28 S&H and tax and we got it where we purchased our bikes from and paid $360(and change) tax in!. Now we can take our bikes on our extended family vacations coming up.

Hit up Costco and stocked up on all our basics like TP, hemp, flax, etc…. and used our rebate check. $76 something saved plus some items were also on sale.

Went to a local nursery that sells veggies. Some from what they grow but also local farmers and I guess some overstocked items.

Anyways I ended up getting:
2 large cardboard containers of mini tomatoes (one red and the other mixed)
4 large zucchini
1 purple cabbage (the size of a cantaloupe!)
2 clam shells of huge strawberries
2 long English
for $19.30.

[Purdee]

I'm hoping someone with knowledge on booking flights from westjet website can help me with their current promo code. Here's the long story:
- westjet promo code is good for May 1 & 2 (it hasn't expired)
- leaving from YEG to USA
- the departure date and return date are not the blackout dates, even the length abroad does not have any blackout dates
- kept getting an error message that promo code was not applied
- checked their FAQ page and everything I did was fine
- attempted to get flight for 1 person then for a group of 4 - promo code still was not applied. Attempted to get flight for 1 person because the FAQ page says "no coding sharing", but the code still was not applied.

Any idea why it's so damn hard to use their own promo code? TIA

[harbie]

Sorry, I wish I could help you @Purdee but I haven’t flown in years. Could you call west jet? Or contact them via their social media account?

[Purdee]

Yes, i plan to call them when i get home from work.
I don't have any social media account - LOL i like to keep it old school and keep my life private.

Sorry, I wish I could help you @Purdee but I haven’t flown in years. Could you call west jet? Or contact them via their social media account?

[coupon girl]

Afternoon ,weeded today ,hubby cleaned and washed the car.

My sweet little granddaughter has surgery on thursday ,her tonsils out surgery is 1 and a half recovery is 3- 4 hours i think .So son asked if we could keep ashlyn the oldest overnight ,for sure .I bought cara the anna doll for her(elsa best friend) and said last night nana is thinking of you .I also got 2 pkgs of pudding for her .
She has to stay off school for 2 weeks so my daughter-in-law is taking a leave with no pay .The other 2 grandchildren ashlyn and sebastian i will give them money -i dont wish to buy for one and not the other 2 .

My darn arthritis in my knees ohh getting old is not easy .lol

[Ciel21]

Joint pain is real. Going up and downstairs with 4 spots hurting is not my glass of cola, that is certain!

Rather lovely to see several flowers in bloom/full colour now! Feels like spring took a really long March break.

Sunny and warm enough earlier to dry some laundry outdoors. Had to finish off with 10min in dryer as edges were not quite dry.
Got to washing off the green growth on some vinyl siding, the garbage shed (most of it is off) and giving the two metal patio chairs a wash. Then when oiling the bolts in said chairs, found out one nut and washer is missing from one of the four on the chair. Grr! have a sign and a replacement wash/nut on but don't have strength to tighten it enough. Will see if sibling will give a darn to do it. He had the chairs indoors and I figure he might know where the original parts are?

Gave exterior of green cart a wash. Inside will have to wait. Maybe tomorrow, I'll do part two of scrubdown and get the cart interior washed and the garbage can as well. A little dish soap in a watering container and some pressure on a microfibre cloth worked well to scrub off the grime and green growth. Also spritzed basement window glass (not streak free but cleaner) with the cleaning solution, wiped off spider webs and tried to remove most of dirt and bits in the window ledges. Rubbed oil onto the hinges and window latches and spring cleaning is done. Towels used as draft dodgers were laundered/dried/put away for next cold season.

Realized that the turkey burgers stick to the wire rack in the toaster oven pan. When it came time to flip burgers over, I almost tore through each burger in the process. So I will have to use the slotted aluminum "rack" from an older toaster oven pan next time I cook them in the small appliance.

The small shop vac that usually resides in the garage was used in basement but the short cord (less than 2m) was a darn hazard.
Reminds me of the short cord on the Haus branded mini food chopper/processor I purchased in March from Giant Tiger: cord is like 70cm long so you have to be near an outlet/tabletop or have a long reach(aka arm) to plug it in across a countertop to use it. Might not suit some kitchen setups as a result of teensy cord length. I used the chopper recently to blitz a mixed bean salad into a dip as that was more the texture I was willing to eat.

May is Eurovision time!! Looking forward to catching up on the songs soon and watching the semi-finals or final if possible live from Sweden via Youtube.

I am chasing gift card contests esp for Amazon. Otherwise a long wait ahead for the carbon rebate likely in June before I can use it.

Yesterday afternoon, our Internet and home phone were offline for over an hour. There were certainly Internet speed issues in the past week. seems whatever technician did to pole has improved the speed somewhat but it's still slower than over a week ago. Have noticed our home phone is getting at least one strange number per day calling us. Call Display is a boon but I'd love a 25+ list for Call Screen (which we do not have in our service bundle). Today, 3 text messages (could not figure out what computer voice was reading to me after first message so I deleted it and the other 2 without listening to them). Hope there is no charge for the text to landline service...I almost considered putting in the home number as my text number for a couple of accounts but held off. Now I know why...

[coupon girl]

Evening -little cara is in recovery she had her tonsils and adnoids out ,poor little thing.My son called awhile ago .

I went to lococos today -trying to stuck to local .
i got 2 strawberries 2.99 each
3-blackberries .99 each
pears were 2.88 lb=$4.41 not that cheap but havent had any in awhile
ginger root .97
tomatoes were 2.89 lb=1.85
glad kitchen bags were 4.99 -cheaper
bag of beets 3.99
spinach 2.49 a big bag i got 2 .
plus a few other items .

Ashlyn is sleeping over at our house as recovery is a few hours they may not get home til 8-9 p.m .My son is letting her stay off school on friday we will have her here til about 4.00 p.m -she is no problem.lol

Hubby just took her to tudoring for math from 6-7 and he promised her a smile cookie from timmies.

[harbie]

Awwww your poor granddaughter @coupon girl . I hope she finally gets some relief from being sick so often
@Ciel21 I hope your joint pain eases. Pain of any kind is awful but when it’s in joints it’s even more awful as it’s difficult walking or moving. Hope today is better
@walkonby hoping your recovery is going good and not too much pain (fingers and toes crossed). Also hoping PT will not be too uncomfortable but will get you up and going soon (and pain free)

[harbie]

Today was a busy one for me. I deep rage cleaned! I haven’t done that since just before surgery back at the beginning of April so it definitely needed it. I haven’t felt up to it until today. I’m talking blinds, baseboards, front hall closet, laundry, you name it I cleaned it. I’ve started my strength training again and it’s feeling good so that and the sunshine motivated me.

I was going to make naan pizzas tonight since that was the plan last night but didn’t but. I opened a tin of unico pizza sauce and it was water! Ok not technically water but ever so slightly thickened red water. Of course the new label lists water as the second ingredient . It’s beyond frustrating to constantly have us consumers screwed with not only the prices going up( which I kinda understand) but the quantity AND quality decreasing! I sent a rather long, detailed and firm email to unico. Guess I’ll stop buying anything unico even though it’s been a staple since I was a kid until now. We will see what response I get. I’m not holding my breath for much.

I made some thank you’s for the surgical daycare staff, my specialist office gals and the dr and the OR staff. I’ll post some pics when it’s completely finished. They’re kinda cute IMO.

Have a great day everyone.

[Frugalbigmama]

Good Morning and TFIF finally!!

Got up before my alarm today. Kitchen is clean. Load of laundry in the washer. Laundry that was hung to dry yesterday is mostly put away.
Once finished putting the laundry away I am moving my printer/scanner to its new spot and then I can sort my desk out.
I also have 9 work boxes in the garage to deal with. Hoping I can condense to one box and shred the rest. That is my goal today!!

Have a wonderful weekend!

[sweet sparrow]

Good morning, everyone! Hopefully the day is starting out well so far for all of you. @harbie , I think I need to deep rage clean. Where do you find this motivation? Please forward some and I will check my mail every day.

I tried using an FPC at Sobeys this week and they tried to charge the tax. Are we doomed to pay tax forever on FPCs or are there still places that won't give you a hassle? I'm going to try next at my local Shoppers, fingers crossed.

[coupon girl]

Sweet Sparrow ,that has been a beef of mine for years of using coupons ,charging the tax on free cpn items .Some do and some dont i just accept it now ,besides i dont have many free cpns anyway these days.

Aslyn is having fun missing school ,i had her read a book with me,now she is forming words on the fridge .We painted and coloured and pap took her for a bike ride this morning.We will take her home around 2.30.

Lunch my homemade turkey and rice soup.

[HermanH]

I tried using an FPC at Sobeys this week and they tried to charge the tax. Are we doomed to pay tax forever on FPCs or are there still places that won't give you a hassle? I'm going to try next at my local Shoppers, fingers crossed.

Good for you to try the coupons at other retailers. Not everyone handles them the same way.

I had a $4 Chapmans coupon and tried to use it at RCSS, when they had the product on sale for $4. I thought that I should receive it for free. However, RCSS refused to honour their advertised sale price. Instead, they insisted that the $4 coupon only apply to their regular retail price of $5.49, so I would have to pay $1.49 for something that should have been free (in my mind.) I took the coupon and used it at Walmart, instead, and got it for $4 (free.) Scr*w them. I complained to Chapmans and they said that it was not a common practice, but that Chapmans allows retailers to handle coupons as they saw fit.

I think it is ridiculous for Sobeys to charge the tax. After all, it is not like it goes into their pockets.

[coupon girl]

We took ashlyn home at 2.30 ,little cara was lying on the couch with her mommy ,then she cuddled with me for awhile .Such a trouper she is .

My hubby helped our son put a new light into the kitchen .I gave my son and his wife toilet paper,paper towels ,purex soap and a small bag of cascade dish tabs ,about 25.00 worth of stuff as my dsaughter-inplaw will be off work for 2 weeks (no pay).

Just being a caring mother and mother-in-law.lol