May 2016 Frugal Chatter - ALL WELCOME

[cath007]

cath -sorry about the loss of your dear grandma

She was 99 years old and in terminal phase but it hurt so much

[sweet sparrow]

@cath007 and @Angela273 : I'm so sorry. (*hug*) Losing someone is never easy.

But look into getting those 3pk seaweed snacks from Shoppers-they are like chips (salty good with some sea flavour) but watch the oil from
the packet-it can land on your clothes (so good munching that I did forget there was other stuff in the wrapper!).

@Ciel : Thank you for reminding me! I think those got me through my last pregnancy. I walked by the low sodium potato chips and bought three packages of them today.

@sweet sparrow you are more patient that I had, I rec'd the growing list of what I could not use I think I would call and say what can I bring, a salad, hotdogs...geez...very limited choices I guess

PS I'm not pregnant and I can devour a bag of chips all by myself while watching a tv show....shhhh don't tell

@jasperandchar : Black beans have temporarily been taken off the list by the doctor. Of course they have. Well, I gave it my best shot, but it seems to come with the territory of being a mom. I feel for her because there is no option #2. It's strange the way allergies show up though. Her oldest was labelled autistic, but has had that revoked since they changed his diet. He's a perfectly normal kid now that he just eats meat, fruit, and vegetables. Of course, he wants to be like any other kid under 10 and eat cake, but if it keeps him out of special ed schools, it's a huge cost savings! Kids seemingly demand that we give them our best effort 110% of the time.

I can also eat a whole bag of chips myself, but now I feel guilty exposing the new LO to a high fat, empty calorie diet.

Well, I lost patience with LO today after she decided she had to pee three times while in the bath and then didn't go at all on the toilet. Afterwards, I had to take a break. I've found that pregnancy has made me lose any and all patience. The bath water went cold twice and I had to take a "Mommy break" afterwards and left DH to steam the vegetables and get the chicken in the oven himself.

I'm starting to fret about this joint birthday party for LO and this other special diet child. There may be 40 people or more at this party and that's a lot of cake and fruit to buy. I should offer to do the salad....

[SassyAshley]

Hugs Cath

[saundyl]

Plan for today is to finish this week's transcription. Finish the pc im working on. Shower.
Pick up the new tags for our pups i ordered. Drop the thrift store bags off and see if theres anything in the shed for town wide mass trash pickup in a week and a half.

Sent from my SGH-I747M using Tapatalk

[Frugalbigmama]

Hi all. Laundry on the go....never ending it seems. But I am being good and putting it away as I go along. We popped out to No Frills and Walmart. Found some deals (new thermos for DS on for less then 1/2 price) So we are going to make homemade mac and cheese this afternoon for his school lunches and for our dinner tomorrow night with salad (since we both have busy days tomorrow it will be the perfect dinner to come home to.)
Dinner tonight is a beef roast-just popped it in the oven. Serving with mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans and peas and coleslaw. I am craving it so bad! Getting lunch stuff for the week ready- boiling eggs now and will cut up the watermelon I bought. Going to pop out again in a bit to get 18 pk eggs at Foodland for $2.99 (just saw on the sign passing by) and GT to buy more Glad bags. Bought 4 more this afternoon at WM but since it is getting harder to get free shopping bags that are not crap and this is something that will not go bad I am stocking up.

[cdngal75]

Good morning. Well with DS's sports every night it is clear that I won't be getting much done around the house during the week. Laundry is piling up! Which is ok- I rather do it all in one day (the weekend) then doing it every night since it feels like that is all I do! Kitchen is clean so it isn't that bad. Tonight is our end of year hockey banquet. So things are being checked off the to do list!

If your son plays for Midland, we very well may have passed each other. My son was there for lacrosse and there was a hockey banquet happening upstairs.

[Granger]

Does anyone use the SDM app?

I do. I LOVE it. Remember how I complain about the PC points; offers no good for me. I ordered catering for my sister's bridal shower from Fortino's Pan Fresco. Cashier asked if I had my card and I said, I always do and scan but usually don't meet the offers. Boy did I get points! $50 worth!!! While there isn't a base points like SDM there is a bang for $150 spent (and I got it x3!!!) Scan those cards ladies...even when you are not getting points...you may be surprised!

Hugs Cath

Sympathies to Cathy and Angela. For every happy moment there seems to be a sad one that counters.

[coupon girl]

-well today did laundry
-this afternoon popped over to my sister-in-law's and saw my niece (on my side) she is 20 and just had jaw surgery about a week and a half ago -I wanted to give her a giftcard in a card -but the store I went to was out -so gave her 20.00 in a card just a nice gesture as she had surgery
-then popped into lococo on the way home

[Granger]

A couple pics from the shower yesterday.


Cupcakes made by my friend! They were so good. $45 for 48 (her cost)...I gave her $60!



Panorama of the room. Held at my church. FREE.



Favours. Cookies to support local hospital in honour of one of my students that died. $80 for 50 ($1 a cookie cost plus a donation). Centrepieces, a local garden centre gave us their promotion in advance of the sale. $4 each X 8.



My sister and I. I am on the left.

I budgeted $500 for the shower. We had 40 in attendance and served a full luncheon. The bank is still out and balancing...Peter and Paul have to work our their borrowing and payments (i.e. my mom and I). I will let you know how I did, but I think we came in under budget thanks to people's kindness...picking up something here or there or offering their services at their cost. If it were just me, we would be on budget, but my mom is one of those, "Oh, let's add this, I'll pay for it...Oh, I am going to cover the flowers, I know you said you had that in your budget." So what this actually means is I will come in under my budget and my mother will be over hers, because she can afford it.

[Natalka]

Granger, everything is so lovely; well done - and you two sisters look great!

[SassyAshley]

Granger it looks amazing.

Your Mom sounds like my Nanny, she used to do things like that because she could never say no.

[coupon girl]

-wonderfull,beautifull shower and 2 lovely sisters

[Angela273]

I completely finished weeding my vegetable gardens today. I dug and pulled three 5 gallon buckets of weeds and rocks. I picked up a half ton load full of beautifully composted sheep manure from a farmer for free. I just got in contact with him last week. My husband and brother unloaded most of the soil into my garden. They left 1/4 of it in the box of my truck for our friend who lives down the street from me. He'll get it from me tomorrow. While at the farm the farmer and his wife showed us around some. Our 3.5yr old son around their farm. They invited us back to see the new animals again; they are currently hatching another batch of chicks. They had quite a variety of animals. I am also welcome to get more manure from them any time, completely FREE! I'm excited to see how my garden will react to all this new nutrients.

[sweet sparrow]

@Granger : Such beautiful pictures! It sounds like the shower was a huge success. Whoever thought they could be so expensive! For my bridal shower, a good friend of mine invited about ten friends to her basement. She recruited her mom and sister to cook so it was an all-Italian meal.

What an awful night. I checked my accounts to make sure everything was in order and found that my checking account where the daycare money was to be withdrawn had a $45 NSF charge. With all the commotion with my mother being in the hospital and not being well, it completely slipped my mind. I called the bank, not expecting them to be understanding and they did a one-time reversal of the fee.

Then I called the accounting department of the daycare, and they wanted to charge a $25 NSF charge. I asked if there were any other options to get the money to them sooner and it was either a money order from a bank (more fees) or drop by their office by 6 PM tonight. They are in a different city, so there would be no way to get to them by bus and back to get LO at daycare in time. He decided not to charge the NSF and double up the fee next week.

$70 crisis averted! I've automated the payment at the bank to move money bi-weekly now, but I've never in my life forgotten anything like that. Luckily, I must sound like a pregnant crazy person over the phone. Both said they don't affect my credit rating and to ignore the letter in the mail. Phew!

My friend said motherhood does that to you. I am going to have to buy a ton of sticky notes for reminders for myself.

[Frugalbigmama]

Happy Monday! We have sunshine and they are calling for sunshine all week and into the long weekend Yippppeeeee!!

I am starting the week off right. Snacks and an awesome lunch for work (leftover roastbeef etc).

Off to clean up the budget and pay the damage from the weekend. Not too bad really. Did spend $40 at Walmart which I never do but had DS with me lol and there were lots of deals/sales. and I did use $17 in coupons (Glad bags and Tide Pods)
Received my Enbridge bill in the mail (gas)
$79.89 (Last month was $101.46 so going down for summer )
$20.33 of the $79.89 is my water heater rental.