August Frugal chatter

[avoncallingu]

Well today was a productive day around here. DH and DD painted the spare room light blue which was the request from the 10 year old student coming from Korea on Tuesday to live with us for the school year. Just need to go to Ikea and get her a single duvet and cover-they are usually nice and reasonably priced there. My husband bought the paint at Walmart for only $15 a can and it covered the small room and closet in 2 coats so that was a good deal. Furniture was re-arranged in both rooms so that the girls each have space for their stuff. DH sanded and stained the top of a small stool for the desk so it too will look nice and fresh. I can't imagine sending my 10 year old half way around the world to live with complete strangers for 10 months to practice her English and get exposed to another culture but I guess they do things differently there! Hope her parents have Skype and she is not too homesick!

TEN YEARS OLD!!!!! Holy! I had in mind at least a late high-school student! Do you have to be "vetted" by the police or anything? Not that I worry about YOU but what about OTHER possibilities for these students?

[avoncallingu]

Yesterday and today I have been busy with a rehearsal and then wedding for a couple down at the lake near us. LOVELY couple, beautiful setting overlooking the lake! No shopping for me. DH cut the lawns front and back. It was lovely weather here. Tomorrow I will be getting together with another couple that I will marry in Sept. I LOVE my job!

[sweet sparrow]

good evening all. got lots done today. and lots of stuff to fix a few projects in the house . tomorrow we go and get a utfoit for each of the kids for school. I have $ saved for it.
My don and I are watching a bit of netfix, and just relaxing.

DH really wants Netflix. Is it worth it? He's been watching movies while "Miss Only Sleeps When Held" resigns herself to a royal nap.

[lizzie bargain]

Avoncallingu-actually I was surprised we didn't need a police record check even though we had one 2 years ago for a Spanish student who visited with us for 4 weeks to practice her English. I mentioned this to the fellow who screened us and I said he should be doing that! I think he relies on his judgement and probably asked questions about us at our small local school. What amazes me is that we have no direct contact with the parents-the child will phone home once a week or so( I thought we could all Skype) and any questions or concerns we call the guardian here and he contacts his counterpart in Korea who is then in contact with the parents. Oh and I am to write a brief report once a month which the guardian will send to the parents about how things are going-I will definitely attach pictures too! I feel like we are on a steep learning curve already. From what I have read, Korea is extremely competitive with a huge population so parents feel they are doing the best for their kids by sending them abroad to practice English and learn to speak without an accent and be exposed to another culture and I guess I should not be judging but I would not even want to send my 14 year old away now for 10 months. I will be inviting some other 10 year old girls over from our school to play as I think play is a universal language-the guardian also told us where there is a Korean store not too far away if we want to take her and she can buy some snacks with her pocket money. Anyway the room turned out to look really nice so we sent a pic via the guardian to Korea-we had already sent pics of the house and us and have pics of the girl and her family. I guess she will leave sometime tomorrow as it is a long journey here-she is travelling with a group of 3 other students so I expect the first few days will be culture shock and jet lag! From what I can gather it must be costing the parents at least $30,000 per year so they must be quite well off? Also from what I hear the kids go to school 6 days a week there and then to English classes in the evening so perhaps they don't spend a lot of time with their parents at this age. Anyway we signed up because we thought it would be a good learning experience for our whole family and we are learning already- we also receive a monthly sum to provide food etc for this young girl. I best cast my mind back 4 years ago to an appropriate bedtime and when we started leaving DD home alone for short periods of time.

[SassyAshley]

I know I could not have left my family at 10, heck at 19 I got some home sick I dropped out of college to move back home, but I have my whole life dealt with server homesickness.

I would have assumed you would have contact with the family as well. I think the whole experience would be very existing but also kind of scary.

[coupon girl]

lizzie that's awesome -my girlfriend took 2 boys(age 15) in from korea for 2 weeks as they went to a local college to learn English-she loved it -they took them places too -she said it was a lot of runningaround for 2 weeks but enjoyed it

[coupon girl]

well hanging another set of clothe on my line -got my new bedroom set yesterday -I am in heaven-lol - I have never had a whole complete set in my life -I think we deserve it -saved up for it bit by bit-couponing does help save in the long run -spent 430.26 on groceries so far this month-so 107.00 a week for the 2 of us mind you that is stocking up on some stuff too-not bad spend 42.81 on eating out -twice(not bad)today we are going to kings buffet-so that will cost us for my hubbie's sister 50th -we may split the bill with other brother so she and her friend (a guy) don't have to pay -she is on a disability-so I will give her a card with a bit of money and a nice basket I got last few months from dove paid 9.00 for it it has 2 shampoos ,puff,cologne and a body wash in a nice pink straw basket -summer set (see it pays to by ahead -I knew someone would like this

[Crochetlady]

King`s buffet...one of my favourite restaurants! So nice of you to take SIL out for her birthday.

[SassyAshley]

I decided well mom was away I needed to keep myself busy so yesterday I processed 20 of 30 ears of corn. 10 were frozen raw, 10 were roasted in the oven and frozen, I also made 3 batches of pizza dough in my bread maker (I love my bread maker) split each batch in half and frozen them. Also made myself some homemade pizza for dinner. We did not have any pizza sauce so I had to improvise, we had some tomato paste and paasata sauce in the fridge which I mixed together cooked down with spices and used as sauce.

I decided after dinner since mom would not be home before I went to bed that I would call it a me night so I quickly cleaned up the kitchen, turned the dish washer on put away all the laundry and curled up in my chair with a cup of tea and watched a bunch of episodes of Saving Hope I had on the PVR.

Today I finished cleaning the kitchen, have potato bread in the bread maker cooking and mom has grilled the last 10 ears of corn to be frozen. Still have a few more things to try and get done today. I still have to write a grocery list which may not go well after just a quick peak I think there is a lot I want to pick up this week.

Hope everyone is having a great Sunday.

[lizzie bargain]

SA-I always just use spag sauce for pizza sauce when we make homemade pizzas-my favourite are the Catelli glass jars bought on sale and it seems to work okay as is.

[lizzie bargain]

I noticed at my Walmart today that they had school snacks on for $2.00. They had an 8 pack of Nutrigrain Bars or rice krispie squares so 25 cents each did not seem too bad-even better if you have a coupon. A pack of fish crackers was $2.00 as well. These are treats in our house as I often send fruit and home baking which I think is healthier.

[Insane]

I'm BACK!! Did you miss me??? Computer had to go out for repair. (And SC is blocked at work! I know, right? Sheesh, expecting me to work! LOL) There's a rant in here somewhere, but long story short...don't buy a computer from staples! Like EVER!

Managed to sock away a nice little bit of money over the summer (our daycare is cheaper over the summer as the kids only goes part time). Hubby decided to start trying to tackle our cold living room by starting with the garage ceiling. Everyone on our street (it's townhouses) has the exact same problem. Very long story short....the insulation was subpar and the work was of poor quality. Hubby ended up tearing down the ENTIRE ceiling and we had to have someone come in and spray foam the ceiling. Although I know this will make a HUGE difference in the winter, I had to kiss all my summer savings good bye!

And my preteen won't stop growing. I'm not even kidding. He's taller than me. He needed all new hockey equipment this year. Since we live in the middle of nowhere, it means we can't go to used sporting goods stores anymore. So not only did he need all new gear, but it had to be NEW gear. That was $400 I'll never see again, plus I still have to spend the nearly $600 to register him. Sigh....this month has been really, really expensive. And it's not even over yet. The girls still need dance clothes, my son still needs to get registered in squash. Bus passes need to be bought (for my son, my daughter goes to an after school program). And I need to register the girls in skating sometime next month. Man oh man, Aug and Sept are always so darn expensive. Every year I vow to plan better for next year, and every year I fall short. Kids are expensive!

[SassyAshley]

Welcome back,

Kids activities are insane, the one girl I work with her kids are still playing baseball (one in rep which is insane) and are about to start hockey, plus where we live there is a ton of travel. I would hate to know what they spend in a year.

[MrsSunshine]

thank goodness August is nearly over.. it was very hard keeping spending under control.. it worked though. i don't think i went over $200 for the month.. we used alot of things from the freezer.. i did some MAJOR PM'ing and coupons this month..
also this week was a cheap week as i spent 3/4 of it away from home..hoping next week is just as cheap. only thing i can see buying is milk.. bread...again..
bus tickets..hmm maybe once these moochers are off to school food will last longer.. LOL

[sweet sparrow]

I decided after dinner since mom would not be home before I went to bed that I would call it a me night so I quickly cleaned up the kitchen, turned the dish washer on put away all the laundry and curled up in my chair with a cup of tea and watched a bunch of episodes of Saving Hope I had on the PVR.

Oh that sounds lovely. And so peaceful. Right now LO is crying and DH is trying to comfort her. My back still hurts from the last round that I tried to comfort her. I miss the sound of silence sometimes.

I'm BACK!! Did you miss me??? Computer had to go out for repair. (And SC is blocked at work! I know, right? Sheesh, expecting me to work! LOL) There's a rant in here somewhere, but long story short...don't buy a computer from staples! Like EVER!

Managed to sock away a nice little bit of money over the summer (our daycare is cheaper over the summer as the kids only goes part time). Hubby decided to start trying to tackle our cold living room by starting with the garage ceiling. Everyone on our street (it's townhouses) has the exact same problem. Very long story short....the insulation was subpar and the work was of poor quality. Hubby ended up tearing down the ENTIRE ceiling and we had to have someone come in and spray foam the ceiling. Although I know this will make a HUGE difference in the winter, I had to kiss all my summer savings good bye!

And my preteen won't stop growing. I'm not even kidding. He's taller than me. He needed all new hockey equipment this year. Since we live in the middle of nowhere, it means we can't go to used sporting goods stores anymore. So not only did he need all new gear, but it had to be NEW gear. That was $400 I'll never see again, plus I still have to spend the nearly $600 to register him. Sigh....this month has been really, really expensive. And it's not even over yet. The girls still need dance clothes, my son still needs to get registered in squash. Bus passes need to be bought (for my son, my daughter goes to an after school program). And I need to register the girls in skating sometime next month. Man oh man, Aug and Sept are always so darn expensive. Every year I vow to plan better for next year, and every year I fall short. Kids are expensive!

Yes! Missed you! Amazing how after awhile you start noticing certain personalities posting less frequently on SC and thinking "I wonder what happened to ____", even if you only know them by a made up name.

I'm a little nervous how much LO will cost once she gets older. Expenses always come up, but I just keep thinking that things could have been much worse had I not been saving up until then. Enjoy the comfort in the winter as the money is well spent. Just keep thinking money is a tool that improves the quality of our lives. It hurts a wee bit less when I try and think of it like that.