January 2016 frugal chat thread

[Ciel]

Since reading @SassyAshley 's post about making doughnuts for work, I am wanting homemade doughnuts. Found the Holiday 2013 Live Better Boston Creme donut holes recipe and need to get two items in order to make a batch tonight! Side note-Food & Drink Winter issue has a recipe for beer donuts if you have a can or bottle of beer left over from holidays and can spare 1 cup for the batter! The recipe mentions a specific beer due to its flavour notes but beer is beer!

Got a Bodum vegetable peeler with green handle as I don't like a Y-shaped peeler that a parent bought recently. Can see myself making carrot or zucchini ribbons in the future...

While I love a dress pattern in the January Burdastyle magazine, I don't have jersey fabric for it. Old flannel sheets will finally have a purpose as my test/winter fabric for the project.

The local daily paper published 7 of the 9 organizing tips for people who need some momentuum on sorting/clearing items at home. http://greatist.com/live/declutter-t...nal-organizers

Sobeys Extra Ancaster-there's an upcoming Hemp Hearts:Supporting Your Heart well-being session (free; need to preregister at Customer Service Desk) on Wed. Feb. 24 (6-7pm). Really recommend that anyone who is new to hemp hearts to consider attending the session and find out ways to use them.

[saundyl]

@walkonby I hear you about sending dh's to the grocery stores with list, things get put in the cart which were not on the list but 1 must weigh the benefits when not mobile. Hope your pain subsides soon (hugs)
@coupon girl sounds like your daughter and her dh have found their balance in life and finances, great to hear

Supper tonight is homemade pogos and veggies with dip. I received a new deep fryer for Christmas, however, I don't believe the pogos will fit in the fryer, I'll see if it will work if not back to the old pot on the stovetop.

Our cottage was re-evaluated over the summer and we received an invoice for the difference in value, sadly $333.60 I was not expecting to have to pay this month BUT thankfully the money was in the cottage account so it all worked out.

Wishing everyone a wonderful day.

What is a pogo?

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[coupon girl]

-I think a pogo is a battered hot dog on a wooden stick -am I right???

[saundyl]

Ow! Earaches are awful! My nanna used to warm up a potato, put it in a sock and apply to ear! I guess it was the heat that helped! Hope you feel better soon!

My sister gave me pocket heat in a clicks that have been working wonderfully!

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[saundyl]

Hope you feel better soon. I have a question about your dish cloths. I also crochet them but they shrink quite a bit after putting them in the wash. What size are your dish cloths before washing them....that would be helpful to know since I'm relatively new to this as well How much do you sell your dish cloths for? I'm think of making some for a fund raiser here and want to know what to price them for.

I use a us size 6 needle and cast on 4 stitches knit increasing each row by one until i have 53 across then decrease by one each row until i have 4stitches left.
Ive also opted at times to stop when i get to 50 stitches because the smaller ones fit better in my tall thin glasses!

Pricewise I've typically asked 2.50 per cloth or sold sets of 3 for $6. Most of the cloths i make a ball I've purchased cost $1.50 (i havent indulged in cloth wool gir 4yrs i had so much) i noticed up here most balls for one cloth are $2.24 apiece now and ive been told that im asking a fairly low price for where i am.

They typically end up being 9"x9"

Are you applying for mortgage insurance?

Bf applied for the short term disability insurance which once approved is effective 60 days after his accident and will pay us back the mtg payments we make after the 60 days before its approved. Today will be 62 days since his accident. We got the forms all submitted by mid december and have confirmation they were received.

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[Andit]

Just popping in to say hi.

B-day celebrations were fun. To celebrate, the staff at the local watering hole were sweet enough to give me an adult version of the root beer I'm obsessed with (they were not stingy with the rum, I tell ya ). Had 3 lunches and 2 dinners to celebrate (couldn't co-ordinate all my friends in one group, which was better since I had more time to chat with everyone). When we went for dinner at the nearby pub, the waiter offered me a choice of dessert - apparently chocolate martinis count as dessert. Maybe my New Years Resolution should be to learn how to make fancy martinis, just so I can have one before bed every night.

Lily dog is under the weather today (I swear one of us always has to have something going on, sigh). She was perfectly fine yesterday, but refused to eat her breakfast. Not sure if she's sulking cause there is no company coming by today to tell her how pretty she is, or whether she has an upset tummy from all the treats she's been getting. She did gobble up the cheese I bribed her with, even if she didn't want to leave her bed. I suspect someone might wake me in the middle of the night to brave the elements.

bff's Dad is in really bad shape at this point. Yesterday, his BP dropped suddenly, then stabilized, so no one can really say how much longer he will be with us. bff is really stressed out & can use all the prayers and good thoughts that can be thrown her way - in addition to this stress, she's worried about her Mom (picked up a bad cold at the hospital) and is struggling with whether she should go for a job interview on Friday (I'm pushing her to do it, since I know what she's like & she'll regret not doing it). Poor thing has so much on her plate & I wish I could do more, but she doesn't want me near the hospital (with my immune system, it's not a good idea).

Today has not been a good day. As I said to one friend, it's too darn hard to be an adult. Oh well, at least I don't have to shovel sn*w (ah, the joys of condo living).

Better go check on Lily dog.

Hope everyone has a quiet uneventful (unless happy!) evening. Night all.

[jasperandchar]

-I think a pogo is a battered hot dog on a wooden stick -am I right???

coupon girl is abosolutely correct

[jasperandchar]

@Andit so sorry to hear about your bff's dad, that's really tough on everyone, hope he isn't suffering. Sending prayers for your friends family and yourself. PS hope Lily feels like her old self soon.

Happy belated birthday to you, when was your special day?

[jasperandchar]

Ran some errands tonight while Logan had his appointment.

Returned a snow suit to WM which apparently they shipped without the snowpants...sigh....didn't even notice as I didn't open the bag completely, only peeked to see if it was yellow like I ordered the 2 previous times only to discover blue again...geez....WM called walmart.ca who said that many people were calling in as they also had not received the snowpants either AND told the store to do the refund.

Purchased a new lamp shade as the other 1 we had fell apart over Christmas not cheap but looks a 1000 times better.

AND Picked up a bag of free Christmas tins some from a local facebook page was offering, dh uses them to store his nuts, bolts, washers, door hinges etc so it's always nice to have some extras kicking around, .

DH needed some wood shims for some door frames we need to install so off to Home Depot we went, I ended up purchasing a new Christmas tree for $32 reg. $129. with white lights. And dh snagged a 4 foot Christmas wreath on sale for $20 reg. $79.99 so pretty pleased with our finds. I will admit the Christmas clearance sales are well picked over BUT super excited about my new tree & dh's wreath.

Wishing everyone a great evening.

[coupon girl]

-still battling a head cold going into week 2 -ran out of homemade turkey soup -so may make some today
-resting today as we have ashlyn overnight on sat 12.00 til sun at 1.00 p.m -gotta build my energy up for her

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning All,
My head is still spinning from yesterday. We had a managers meeting yesterday and we covered A LOT of ground and a lot more applies to me now with my new role. So I am sitting here trying to figure out what we can and cannot do within the system and what needs to be done to achieve some things we wish to change. I have a meeting tomorrow as we are upgrading our processing system so I have asked out controller to sit down with me tomorrow to go over what we have to do.

Today is Mom's bday but she has to work so we took her out to dinner last night. We have found a Japanese restaurant we really like so we went there and bro came. Since today is actually Mom's bday she will be picking up Chinese on the way home (I am paying but she is picking up since I will be home an hour before she even gets off work and it is on her way home).

We were supposed to go grocery shopping last night after dinner but neither of us felt like it especially since it started to snow again well we were in the restaurant. So tonight I will stop on the way home and grab a couple things just need milk and will check the price on a couple other things and if the price is right I will grab if not can wait till next week.

This job continues to be a great frugal step I do not even have time to think about spending.

Well better get back to it, have a great day everyone.

[Frugalbigmama]

Morning! One more sleep and it's Friday! woohoo! What a snowy week it has been! We are off to the big smoke this weekend for the battle of the bands final night! Will be a nail biter for sure!!

I guess all my big credit card purchases before Christmas for work etc made PC Financial MC decide to up my credit limit. Received a letter in the mail yesterday saying if I accepted I would receive 5000 PC PTS. Sure why not. I may want to rack up my credit card and leave the country in the near future so a higher credit limit would help lol

[jasperandchar]

Morning all,

I've been day dreaming lately anticipation my tax refund for 2015 - yes I know we still have about 2 months or so before the T4s etc start showing up in the mail. I spoke with our accountant last year (yes we don't do our taxes - not frugal) but we have lots of wonky things in our incomes so it's worth paying someone else to do all the legwork and take care of any questions from CRA.

Anyways I have been daydreaming as I should receive a nice return if all goes as discussed with account last year. My inlaws have a contractor doing an addition and some renos with the inheritance that MIL received when her dad passed away last summer.

I am going to get the Rick over in the next few days while he's working next door AND when dh is home to give us an estimate to gut our bedroom and Logan's old room as both rooms will become a master suite with an office off to the side. He would be gutting the old lath & plaster, studding the walls, spray foam, drywall, mud, paint, install new window in our room AND frame new wall for main bathroom (a project for later down the road - perhaps next years (2016) tax refund.

Anyways it's nice to daydream, however, I truly believe if what the accountant told me to put aside it is a real possibly....fingers crossed.

Wishing everyone a wonderful day AND don't forget to day dream (haha)

[jasperandchar]

@coupon girl hope you feel better soon
@saundyl hope you are feel better as well
@Andit hope your bff's dad's condition improves
@avoncallingu hope the house viewing went well, hopefully the agent's showing the house provide feedback AND hope your dh's is doing well these days

[Frugalbigmama]

Morning all,

I've been day dreaming lately anticipation my tax refund for 2015 - yes I know we still have about 2 months or so before the T4s etc start showing up in the mail. I spoke with our accountant last year (yes we don't do our taxes - not frugal) but we have lots of wonky things in our incomes so it's worth paying someone else to do all the legwork and take care of any questions from CRA.

Anyways I have been daydreaming as I should receive a nice return if all goes as discussed with account last year. My inlaws have a contractor doing an addition and some renos with the inheritance that MIL received when her dad passed away last summer.

I am going to get the Rick over in the next few days while he's working next door AND when dh is home to give us an estimate to gut our bedroom and Logan's old room as both rooms will become a master suite with an office off to the side. He would be gutting the old lath & plaster, studding the walls, spray foam, drywall, mud, paint, install new window in our room AND frame new wall for main bathroom (a project for later down the road - perhaps next years (2016) tax refund.

Anyways it's nice to daydream, however, I truly believe if what the accountant told me to put aside it is a real possibly....fingers crossed.

Wishing everyone a wonderful day AND don't forget to day dream (haha)

I daydream daily lol. But at the end of the day and looking how bad our $ is, the price of everything going up etc. I am sitting tight for the next year. Saving every penny I can!