2025-04 April Frugal Thread

[Giseledta]

Thanks guys
He's getting better, slowly

@SassyAshley hugs. Life is hard sometimes .. just hugs

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[Angela273]

A local second hand store had an anniversary sale. For $11 I managed to fit the following items into the store’s cloth bag. Basically $0.50 each.
17 items of clothing
3 pairs of dress shoes for twin girl
1 thermal cup

[coupon girl]

Wow Angela awesome deals.

Called son this morning he has his 2 days off and only little Cara is staying home from school as she still had a low grade fever.
Today washed a furry blanket -dried outside over my backporch railing .

Then raked ,the whole back yard even more around the bushes ,inside the lilac bush and behind as much as i could get ,even raked a bit of the neighbours up back (we have a gate that opens between our yards) she is 73 and her hubby died a few years back.

Now i am in my p,js and putting heat on my knee for a bit.

[Ciel21]

Well, some random snowball effect in spring cleaning after vacuuming the living room. All the towels used as draft dodgers got laundered and dried and put away. Did try line drying one load of towels outside but there's a damp coolness to Mr. Wind so I took down the load and used the dryer. Laundered bedsheets and put the Simons sheet set on the bed. Plan to launder the comforter this week. Gave my grocery totes a washing too.

While waiting for the second towel load to finish wash cycle, I looked at the floor joists in the basement and saw way too many spider webs, clinging dust etc. despite a March vacuuming session. Took a Swiffer duster pad on the extended handle and did a general dusting of crevices, pipes then tried to remove stuff on the wood panelling, some recroom ceiling tiles and the floor's nooks. Yes, I got some dust and bits in my eyes. Should have worn eye protection.

Lunch was pantry macaroni surprise and Red Lobster cheddar bay biscuits. Bro bought a mixed shredded cheese product last night so I made the biscuit batter during the pasta boiling time. The garlic butter sauce is hard to taste unless a generous pour is applied to biscuit tops; dribbles of sauce from a spoon did not give much taste.

Need to apply myself to a list of getting curried lentil stew made, making vegetable broth from the frozen scraps and deciding on two things to bake. Have felt sleepy for the past hour but feeling is going away. Have some pain around temples and eyes-thinking it could be rain related as some is expected tonight.

Gluten-free expo: got to venue in last 5 minutes of show. Rosie's Kitchen brownie cookie was so good-$8 for small rectangular foil pan. Cut brownie with cookie base into quarters so Bro and I each had a piece. The other two pieces were breakfast today. Bruno's Kitchen small personal apple pie $10. Looks good on top, filling tastes sweet but pastry looks pale on bottom. I know a cookbook on gluten free baking mentions that gf baked goods do not brown the same way as gluten baked goods.
Make Good granola bites, 5 flavours being sold. 6 bags for $20 or 3 for $10. Bought three bags and donated two of them to celiac safe food donation bin. Purchased Viola foods frozen fettucine. The product got toted by me for an hour as I shopped expo then two other stores. Cooked fettucine but in less than the 4l of boiling water recommended, so I did get clumped fettucine. Managed to eat most of pasta with sweet basil marinara sauce. Iffy about the pasta. Got to sample Brookston Oaks Brewery's gf Highland Lager, not yet on the market. Chilled, it smelled like a regular beer and tasted like a regular beer with a slight aftertaste. So good!

I picked up the March-April Look Local magazine (guess it came late to Longos as it has not been in stock earlier in month) and noticed Oakville's French Lunch has an ad. The eatery was listed as a vendor at the expo but I had not gone around all of the venue, sticking to one side. My mistake in going around once before I started buying items, so I missed seeing what French Lunch had. Did notice another baked goods vendor-their boxed treats with icing were around $24.
Found a rusty dime on a road shoulder on my walk. Had to leave the empty beer cans alone as I did not bring a sturdy small tote for them (and it may be awhile until I venture near a beer store again).

[Ciel21]

Thrift Store offer for Wednesday April 16: 40% off skirts and dress pants.

Giant Tiger VIP coupon to April 20, 2025-repeat offer of $10 off $50 spend in most departments including grocery. One-time use in-store or online.

Ancaster's The Amazing Home Store sign for senior's day has covered up the Monday and Tuesday. So 15%off on Wednesdays now. I did not go in yesterday-maybe on Wednesday.

Easter is this weekend. Store and bank closures on Friday and Sunday, plus Monday for banks. Libraries will also have closures. Transit schedules will be on holiday schedules.

[SassyAshley]

@harbie and @Giseledta , Thank you. Deep down I know I need to take care of me but it seems so hard when I am the one without restrictions.

Today was a better day.

Mom is still in a lot of pain and her mood wasn't much better.

Her car won't start so I offered if she called the Tow Truck I would go out when they came to boost it and would take it for a drive on my lunch but she didn't so I guess we will leave this for another day.

I was hoping to sort a random shelf of stuff in the kitchen but I could tell based on Mom's mood today was not the day.

Instead I sorted some of the random papers in our living room. I keep trying to go paper free at work but it just is not working. Everytime I clean them up I say this will be the last time but it never is so now I think I just need to come up with a better system

I have my cookie dough from yesterday sitting on the counter, I need to roll it into balls, roll them in sugar and bake them off.

Dinner was Parmesan Crusted Pork Chops with Roasted Potatoes and Lemon Asparagus. I just opened a new pack of potatoes and although they look fine, once I started peeling the marks and spots I had to cut off was disappointing. If all of them are like this I am going to have to buy potatoes soon as this bag won't last with the amounts I am cutting off.

After the cookies are done I think I will focus on organizing a bit as that usually helps me feel better.

[HermanH]

Yes, I got some dust and bits in my eyes. Should have worn eye protection.

With so many ubiquitous blue masks, put them to good use.

[Giseledta]

Good morning. Going to be a long day, rain forecast for most of it. but we will appreciate the flowers when they come.

Yesterday I added snow peas to my front gardens. And my baby spinach is so tiny little leaves.
I am so looking forward to not sighing at the store buying lettuce and spinach.

Not sure what today will bring. But I'm sure it will be a good one. Have fun all

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[flemeth]

Good morning all.. busy weekend. Hubby had surgery on Friday, so we have been taking care of him most of the weekend. Thankfully he is off today.

Did a shop at foodland. Very good shop. Lots of points, decent sales I didn't need much so that was nice.

I got the garden beds filled yesterday.

Goal for today is bricks around the ac unit to keep the weeds down. And possibly, start onnthe garden bed beside the house. It's a hot mess and needs work before the weeds start growing.
Hugs tl all

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@Giseledta hopes your hubby have a speedy recovery

[Frugalbigmama]

Morning!

Rain here as well! I guess a good day to get the housework inside done!


Our coffee at Costco went on sale starting yesterday. Also wanted to fill the propane tank. The casino has a free gift series for 3 weeks... 3 items - one each week- Pick up Monday or Tuesday so figured it was a good day to go for a drive. And that area has the cheapest gas so topped up the tank!
Was a beautiful evening for a drive!

Today- Started work extra early today. Just sipping coffee and going through email and getting a few things done. Will start some bigger things later.

Food- Salad stuff prepped. Boiled eggs.(to go on salad or to make egg salad sandwich for lunch- yum!!) 2 small pieces of chicken left in fridge- Can be used for a wrap. Since we have all the fixings for tacos I think I will make black beans for me and ground beef for the others for tacos ( black beans are so good in the hard shell tacos!)
The taco kits are on for $3.47 at Walmart and some had $1 off coupon on the package. (we usually just buy our own wraps and season the beef/beans but this was not a bad deal and I felt like hard shells for a change)

I should do a load of laundry today. I have 0 socks in my bin (well I have winter and hiking socks but not my regular angle sport socks I wear) ( I have new socks but I don't want to put them in the rotation yet lol)

Have a wonderful day!

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
We got some rain here this morning which is supposed to become a wintery mix and then change to snow, the percentages are low so hoping it does not happen. The winter that just won't end.

I had been planning to do some running around tonight after work but based on what I am seeing from the weather I may hold off. Normally I would just see what the weather does but since I would have to head out of town not sure I want to risk it if the weather hits well I am out.

Baked off my cookies last night, hoping they are one of those cookies that gets more flavour as they sit, they aren't bad but for a Lemon Sugar Cookie, they are were lacking the Lemon. Also the recipe said I would get 24 and they do not look at big in the picture I actually think mine are larger but I got 48.

Already knocked out one big thing for work this morning, was going to take a quick cleaning break but now I am waiting for a phone call.

Will continue to slowly try to clean up our house, right now my focus is what can leave the house even if it is just extra packaging, I want to see garbage bags leaving my house.

I also kind of feel like I need to find one big task I can tackle and get done to get the momentum rolling. Will have to see what Mom's mood is like when she gets up but I am not sure it will be good as I have heard her get up 3 times since I got up at 6 and it is only 9 so do not think she is having a good night. The issue is, if she is not in the right mood trying to declutter usually doesn't go well. She will get annoyed and decide we need to keep everything so, I have to hit the right mood.

I am trying to get back into my cleaning routines, I do make sure each night the kitchen is clean after dinner so I wake up to a clean kitchen but now I need to make sure in the morning I am putting away the clean dishes. I will do anything to not dry dishes so there is almost always dishes in our drying rack, if I put them away as the day goes on I will wash as I go but if it is full I let the dishes pile up until Dinner time and then I get annoyed with myself.

Happy Tuesday Everyone.

[Frugalbigmama]

@sassy - My sister just told me on the weekend that she read an article that said it is healthier to let dishes air dry then to towel dry them! I live by that

[Frugalbigmama]

Productive morning so far!

Kitchen clean.
Work stuff on the go.
Load of laundry in the washer.
Shopping bag cleaned out (expired coupons tossed. Good coupons organized. Soon to be expired coupons ready to distribute on next shopping trip)
One washroom cleaned.
Bed made.
Working on cleaning off dresser. (putting stuff where it belongs!)

[walkonby]

just chiming in to say I'm a life long AIR dryer! I've never wasted time drying the washed dishes in the rack. No dishwasher ever so we've always done them by hand. @Frugalbigmama I'd like to pretend that I knew all about it being healthier to air dry vs towel drying them but nope. My logic kicked in as I would place the dishes, mugs, cutlery in the rack that they cannot get " wetter " so I'll be back. The trick is to always to keep the plates separate, so the air circulates between.

[coupon girl]

Afternoon -went to the dentist this morning had to pay for my crown at least we have some coverage ,what a bill close to easter .

Then over to fortinos got a few items for sat (my easter day).I put them under the brag section .
I am loving the alcan tin foil deal on checkout51 3.99 at fortinos -3.00 checkout51=.99 for the 50" gonna give my daughter and dsughter-in-law one each for easter.lol

Got pantene conditioner on the clearance for 50% off i paid 3.27 bread half off .99 .

Cashed out of checkout51 got $52.50