September 2016 Frugal Chatter Thread - ALL Welcome!!

[juliemadden]

Today my hamster got stuck inside the freezer where the parts are. Somehow he got out of his ball. I even tipped the freezer and hung upside down from it. Cake almost got the hamster out, but I was too forceful. I tried to pry out the hamster for about two hours. finally I unscrewed the control panel and pushed him out. I wanted to phone an electrician to check the wires but my dad insisted he'd check. Boy my knees are sore! I will be phoning the hamster ball company though!


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[lizzie bargain]

Quite the hamster story! We once had a hamster go missing while we were away-the neighbour girl was feeding him and she felt terrible. A few days after we got back I heard a rustling in the cupboard under the TV and there was the hamster-he had brought cat food upstairs for himself and shredded some kleenex for a little bed. He must have also drank from the cats water bowl on his food forays-our cat never bothered him at all!

I have been keeping busy helping 3 families out with their little ones-all 3 of them have 4 young children so appreciate the extra set of hands. DD and DH are back to school and work and life is settling back into a fall routine.

[juliemadden]

Wow, I'm glad the hamster survived that long. Cute story!


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[thriftygranny]

Ok ...did you just call your own hamster story cute like it wan't your original post???I am perplexed or stupid today.

Ok verdict is I was stupid....I didn't realize you were commenting on Lizzie's hamster story (don't know how I didn't see it till now)...thought you were replying to your own hamster story......DUH

[avoncallingu]

I have a less happy story about a dryer and a mouse. The guy who came to fix it would not TOUCH the mouse (which had moved on to mousey heaven) - so basically, except for moving the dryer and unscrewing the back - I solved my own problem. I still had to pay the $75 for his visit! I am woman- hear roar!

P.S. I think Julie Madden was calling Lizzie bargain' s story cute.

[Angela273]

I harvested any tomatoes that we're starting to ripen. I also harvested any somewhat decent sized zucchinis, cucumbers, and yellow string beans. I also harvested the last of the red rhubarb, while still leaving a bit to die down and help it store up energy for the winter. I wasn't very organized about finding my sheets and light blankets that I use for protecting my plants from frost, so I don't have as many covered as I would like.

I did a little grocery trip to CO-OP with the kids in my van for the very first time. Our son had a LOT of questions and comments along the way. He doesn't know about the built in DVD player, I told him that those buttons were for long trips. Anyway, I picked up two Larabar bars for $1 each - 75c each from the Caddle app.

Tomorrow is the first Pre-K home visit. One of the EAs and the teacher will be at our house for 45min tomorrow morning. We will be given a variety of info and they will get to know our son more. His first transition day of Pre-K is this Thursday. Their entire class consists of 16 students, but they are split into two groups for the first 4 days of Pre-K, then they will start attending Mon-Th as an entire class.

[Natalka]

Angela, I have never heard of a home visit like that - seems kind of intrusive, no?

Anyway, hoping your son enjoys school!

[thriftygranny]

Angela, I have never heard of a home visit like that - seems kind of intrusive, no?

Anyway, hoping your son enjoys school!

I had a home visit for kindergarten when my now 27 year old was starting school. We were in the middle of moving and all that was left in the house was a few boxes and a kitchen table and two chairs. The point of the visit basically was to see what she was capable of, she had to show she could tie her shoes,(that isn't going to happen in this day and age!!!Hello velcro) she also had to print her name and draw diagonal lines...not sure what that was about. I didn't really find it intrusive but I did find it a little odd.

[Angela273]

It's 5am here and I am up with baby girl for the second time tonight. My phone app says that it is -2 outside at our local airport. I'm still hoping that the covered plants survive this cold snap. I cover my garden almost every fall and hope for the best...I never like this part of the growing season.

[Angela273]

Angela, I have never heard of a home visit like that - seems kind of intrusive, no?

Anyway, hoping your son enjoys school!

Yes, I'm not enthusiastic about the home visit. I am a teacher, but these staff members have never been inside my home. All of the school run Pre-K classes in our community have home visits. I believe there are three home visits in a school year, one at the beginning, one at the middle, and one at the end. My neighbour's son went through this last year. She was given a completed scrapbook of his activities and progress at the end of the school year, I hope that they do this for our son. A different kindergarten teacher in town mentioned that our son may not have been selected just to be a positive example for other students, but also for Dh and I to be good examples to show other parents what their roll is supposed to look like during this process. Estevan has a lot of EAL (English as an Additional Language) families, some of the Pre-K students do not have English as their first language.

[Natalka]

^ So interesting.

Hope your plants are okay, Angela!

Good morning, everyone!

[thriftygranny]

Angela I too am hoping for the best with my garden, I covered as much as I could , I would hate to loose everything now!!

[Angela273]

Angela I too am hoping for the best with my garden, I covered as much as I could , I would hate to loose everything now!!

Yes, we usually get a frost warning, which usually results in me covering the plants and my entire garden survives. If this ends up being a killing frost, I will be quite upset. My son was out there helping me cover the plants and he wanted to cover them all. I found 2 more of my light blankets last night after I was inside for the evening.

edit: I was doing a little research regarding possible frost bitten tomatoes.
http://forums.gardenweb.com/discussi...es-after-frost

[Frugalbigmama]

Thanks for the reminder! I better pick the cucumbers and grape tomatoes tonight that are ready!!

Left the kitchen clean this morning! Brought breakfast and lunch to work.

The whole chicken I cooked last night is ready in the fridge (my honey cleaned the chicken carcus dry last night) So I have no mess to deal with tonight and can get a nice dinner on the table quick!
Since we are hockey free till the weekend I plan on getting stuff done around the house tonight/tomorrow night and start to tackle some "extra" things on my list. I also want to organize our winter stuff. Thinking I should do that tonight so we are ready. Clean out the entrance closet and move the winter stuff in!

Hope everyone had a great day!

[sweet sparrow]

I've just paid half of our CCs and made the morning calls. So far, I've found that the Habitat for Humanity will take our old faucets and showerheads as a donation towards the Restore. Yay! A few more things kept out of landfill!!

I also opened up a savings account with PC for the bonus interest rate. I'm not sure I should have done that as I hate having multiple accounts.

A call to the Children's Place confirmed that I can't return a gift with tags attached without a gift receipt. I certainly like the policies at Gymboree, Disney Store, Gap Baby, Babies R Us, and Carter's much better! I wonder if it would be better to take it to one of the baby thrift shops for cash or sell it myself. Or there's the other option of giving it away as a birthday gift. Unfortunately, LO doesn't know too many younger children. I'll have to see if it's gender specific.

DH will be visiting our parents as a stopover for the wedding rehearsal. My parents will get a bag of things to mend, some GCs that I was able to purchase with points, free pasta and vitamins I purchased on sale, as well as 10 lbs of butter that I found for $2.10! Mom will probably share with her senior neighbours and friends. We'll probably get an update on MIL's cancer diagnosis as well, though it's all still in the testing phase for this month.