2025-03 March Frugal Thread

[SassyAshley]

@coupon girl , I have both the single and the double basket.

I bought the double basket because I found the issue we had is we bought our Air Fryer so we would not have to use our oven on hot days. But if I wanted to cook both our protein and our veggies I would have to turn the oven on to keep one warm well I cooked the other thing.

With the double basket I can cook our protein and our veggies at the same.

I think which one works best depend on your household.

Also just let me say, silicone liner for the air fryer are a game changer, they make clean up so easy. As much as I love my air fryer I admit we really used it in the summer when we had to but I would use the oven during other seasons because it was easier clean up. Now with these liners I use it all the time because the clean up is so easy. Most times I just clean the liner and then wipe out the air fryer.

[coupon girl]

Thanks sassy for the input i think i will buy the double ninja today .We used this air fryer i got from airmiles about 4 times a week ,sometimes it was a pain having my protein ready and not the fries ,so worth it in my view to have a double basket .

Do you pull yours out away from the backsplash as one review said their backsplash got ruined ? I always pulled mine out and turned it sideways so the heat wasnt going under my cupboards.

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
Do not think my body has adjusted to this time change yet, I slept in again. I do not know what it is but for me there a huge difference between getting up at 7 or getting up at 8. Although I am sure my body needed the sleep.

I am feeling kind of meh today, I know there are a ton of things I should tackle and even a few I want to tackle but now I need to find the ambition.

I also know I should prep today but if I thought I struggled with our meal plan last week, this week is even worse and I do not know why. It is isn't that we don't have options, I cannot think of one staple we don't have on hand and the options are limitless but food is just meh right now.

Last night we had clubhouse sandwiches to use up some of the bacon I cooked last week and I made Homemade Potato Wedges on the side. Tonight is another mystery.

Maybe meatloaf with mac & cheese, that will give us leftover Mac & Cheese so maybe later in the week I will pull out a pack of ribs, one side 2 meals sounds good to me. Or I could make steak, see we have options but food is just meh to me right now which makes this whole cooking thing so much harder.

I need to get my butt in gear or nothing is going to happen today.

Happy Sunday Everyone.

[SassyAshley]

@coupon girl , ours actually lives in our dining room so it is always placed in the middle of the counter we when we use it.

[Frugalbigmama]

Good Morning! Damp dark day today.

Friday- DS team won the hockey game so they go on to the next round. We are waiting for the others to finish their games so we can see who we play.

Saturday- Up early and grabbed a coffee and went to the town dock for fresh air. Then back home and we decided it was the best day of the weekend to travel to the casino to use free slot play. It rained on the way there but was beautiful and dry for the ride home. Had a late lunch of Chicken souvlaki skewers on a Greek salad with a pita. It was really good. Had just enough points to cover lunch! And I turned the free play into huge profit!!!
Stopped at Costco on the way home and spent $60 and I think I did well. 2 bundles of Puma socks/Naan bread/bacon crumble/Hellman's mayo and sour dough bread. DS made naan pizza for his dinner. I made a piece of toast with jam and fresh pineapple around 8pm.

Sunday- Went out and grabbed a few groceries this morning. Now home to clean up the kitchen and took chicken out of the freezer for tonight and tomorrow nights dinner. Tonight I am making Chicken Parm and tomorrow night Chicken Quesidias with a side salad (will make some waffle fries too for whoever would like them). Then I am using up the wraps and sour cream that are close to expiry. Glad to have a plan for at least 2 nights.
I spent $21.60 at RCSS (redeemed $20 in points and paid $1.60 cash) for 4 x pizzas (PM and used $1 off coupons) 1 lean ground beef package and 2 fresh cheese bagels. I felt like a bagel but don't want them in the house so made one for my breakfast and the other I am sure DS will claim it.
I wanted to get the pizzas for DS for down the road when he is home alone.

Once the kitchen is clean I am going to sort laundry and put a load on then have a shower and head out to No frills and Walmart. I want lots of strawberries for the week and the ones at FB didn't look nice. I also need almond milk since I plan on doing oatmeal all week for breakfast (with the strawberries).
Will go for a walk downtown on my travels since I usually like to stop at the store down there too.

[walkonby]

I brewed THREE Tassimo discs of Espresso coffee at 4 a.m. , added some warmed up 10% cream to it and never looked back! ha ha Oh boy that drink packed a punch. You get so little actual coffee with each Tassimo Espresso discs so I threw caution to the wind.
This is the frugal thread, I know....ha ha Still high on caffeine!

[harbie]

@coupon girl I have the Phillips single basket airfryer but we contemplated the double. For us it came down to space. I really don’t have a lot of space to spare so that was huge but also I generally use it for making crispy tofu that I serve with rice, or couscous which is done on the stove top. Occasionally I will ned to do 2 things like the crispy tofu and I added broccoli part way through and cooked together and up it turned out great.

I also place it on the counter away from any cabinets or backsplash to ensure they don’t get damaged (they recommended to do it that way).

I think if you have the space and if you tend to cook 2 different things at the same time then the double would be the smarter choice.

[harbie]

@walkonby WOW! 3 espressos at 4am . Hopefully you got a lot of things done with all that energy.

Dh and I went for a walk this morning to our local coffee shop and I got a FREE soy caramel decaf latte and it was delicious.

The sun is playing peek a boo so I think we’re going to go for another walk. Exercise, quality time together and it’s FREE.

Hope everyone has an fabulous Sunday

[coupon girl]

Everyone thanks for the input about the airfryers.Harbie i do have the space so i bought a double one Ninja on for 199.00 but came with $30.00 back in points plus my personal points offers i got back $44.81 in triangle points so you may as well say it cost me $154.I sat it on a wooden cutting board with felt tips ,so i just slide it out and away i go .I can dehydrate with this machine also ,that sounds fun !

Saving the points for hubby for summer .

[cath007]

Good earlier evening everyone !!!

Huh now I regret to just have 1 basket on my air fryer.I admit she is still living in the boxe.

No place on my kitchen counter.My kitchen is so small and tiny;is a nightmare for lack of space for cooking and baking.

But I plan to start using my Air Fryer and my Sodastream soon.I really did not go forward and did not think to have 2 baskets.I purchased

this one(NINJA). because of the 50$ off,the capacity and the triangle points back this fall...mmmmm

I found last fall at Dollarama some squares parchemin liners to use too.It was I think 4,50$ plus taxes. I will see if it works.Later if I use a

lots my Air-Fryer I will purchase a silicone liner basket I think.For the moment I just see it online not in stores mmm

Last fall i found and I printed a booklet for the temperature of food.I need to start finding some easy recepies and read the manual guide.

I was deceived by 2 Good to Go. 1 was from the catering meals place. The other one was from the dessert place.The value is there just not the variety.

The specialised sea food prepared meals never showed on Too Good to Go on Friday...It is so random.

Today I got a conveniance store basket.For 24$ I paid 7,99$ 9,19$ with taxes.I got 1 texan chicken sub BB today.1 3 meats sub,BB today,1 Chicken with dried

tomatoes wrap BB today and 1 medium doublechocolate chips cookie BB yesterday.All the stuff is still fresh,I had the texan chicken sub for lunch with the double chocolate chips cookie.

The grocery is still not done but I have an idea on what to put on my list at least.

15 degres today but grey sky and small and tiny rain per moment. I weared my of Jeans coat jacket- unbelievable for march- for going out and on the

balcony.

Friday I renewed my pills by phone.It a 4 hours delays.I went to pick those after.

I manage to do 3 loads of laundry.Hang it on support to dry on the rack.

I have quite a mental list of small things I want to accomplish .I dont want to writhe it down just to put me pressure.I am slow to accomplish even small things....It take forever.My brain is so foggy. Maybe I will be motivated to start this week a little bit who know's.I am so late in that...

Dinner will be breakfest for dinner as I have some bacon to use up.With 2eggs sunny side up, 2 patatoes hashbrowns and 2 pieces of toasts with peannut butter ,jam

an orange juice.

In public harvest since it is the begginning of the sugar shack sugaring off (maple) (not sure if you will understand what I am taking about

I used Reverso translation for this one) I bought maple butter,maple candy and maple taffy with maple butter small scones so good!!!

A treat for sure!!! And my Godmother she is lucky she have a sugar shack,sugaring off along with a forest and so many maple trees.

I am wishing you a good evening and night.

[SassyAshley]

Good Evening Everyone,
Ended up spending my day in the kitchen today.

Decided since I did not grocery shop this week I would empty out the fridge and wipe it down.

I knew I had some blueberries to use up and was going to make a Crustless Blueberry pie. But I discovered my tub of Plain Yogurt the lid was puffing up, no mold, smelt fine so I decided better use it up so instead I made Blueberry Muffins which used up the yogurt and blueberries.

A few weeks ago I bought some soup cubes from Kitchen Stuff Plus, I have been eyeing these on Amazon for a while but even on sale they seemed so expensive. These ones were under $20 each so I decided to pull them out today and freeze all the little bits I had in my fridge, the leftover Garden Cocktail, Pasata, Beef Broth, Pasta Sauce and Rice. The are in the freezer now and will pop them out tomorrow.

I always do my best to limit/have no food waste but I know at times those little bits are what get thrown out so now each week my plan is whatever is left will be frozen in the soup cubes and I will keep them in baggies in the upstairs freezer.

I did some vacuuming in the living room got in all the corners and little areas. Still need to vacuum the hallway and kitchen.

I was hoping to spend some time in the basement today, but that did not happen. I really want to take a inventory of our freezers and use up the oddities that are taking up space. I know I have a bag of frozen pineapple I want out and some Strawberries as well. I mean we use them but not as often as the Blueberries and Triple Berries so I want to save the space for those.

I also have a bunch of small bags of PC frozen veggies, these little bags drive me insane, wondering if I should combine them into a large baggie so try to save space.

Time to relax, think I will head to pinterest and try to find a pattern for an oval or square I can crochet, I have an idea now to see if I can make it happen.

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
Up early this morning and got right to work. Sometimes my most productive hours are 5 am to 7 am before the chaos if the day starts.

After working for a couple of hours I did need a break so I put the microfibre cloths in the washer, pulled out a Pork Loin for Dinner and brought up the dry clothes all the rack.

Shortly I will go and pop the Pork Loin in the Slow Cooker, tonight we will have Slow Cooker Brown Sugar and Sesame Pork loin over Rice with Stir Fry Veggies.

I was going to take a shower a bit later but got a phone call I might have to run into work so hoped in shower just incase. Waiting to hear if I need to go in.

Thinking later if I don't have to go into work I might make a Strawberry Crisp to use up some of my frozen strawberries. It is funny I want to pair down what we have in our freezers but I am also torn on using it, something deep down keep saying but whatif.

I do not deal with uncertainty well and I feel like everything is so up in the air right now. I keep seeing articles that are saying Tariffs are here to stay and we need to learn to live with them. What will that mean for prices on anything and everything. I just feel like the rug could be pulled out at any time.

But on that note all I can do is all I can and today I will tackle what I can.

Happy Monday Everyone.

[Frugalbigmama]

Good Morning and Happy Monday!

Enjoying my coffee. Will write out my to do list this morning. Need to get on laundry.

Boys are heading to a Leafs game tonight. I received a pair of tickets free from work so thought it would be a good Dad and son outing.

Can't wait to get out for a walk today and enjoy the sunshine!

Enjoy the day!

[Frugalbigmama]

Ok skipped my morning walk because I knocked my coffee cup off the bathroom counter and coffee went EVERYWHERE!
So my break was deep cleaning the bathroom haha! It was on my list anyway it just became more urgent.
2nd load of laundry on the go. Linen closet put back together. Tossed 2 more baskets of junk! (was able to add to garbage bin since they haven't picked up yet)
Bed made and window open for fresh air!

[coupon girl]

I went out this morning .First stop cleo ,well since the liquidator is now in the store most things are 40% to 50% off reg price so for a top that is 49.99-$25.00 is not as great a deal before the liquidation started and things were 40% off the last ticket marked down price.

I went into dollar tree and they had energizer batteries 2AAA for $2.00 Plus reg AA's .So i got one as i had bought a set of 4 the other day at another store and paid more.Plus i got a lovely tea towel for 1.50 now i have a set of 2.Plus a stitch paint yourself canvas $1.75 for little miss cara.

Then home as my darn knees were killing me.