March 2020 Frugal Chatter Thread

[Frugalbigmama]

Morning.

We went to a local show last night. 3 bands. There were 8 of us not including the bands and staff. We had a good time and my son and his friend showed up too which was nice.
Drove DS to work this morning and stopped at No Frills for cantaloupe, bananas, pears, and some junk cereal.
Making breakfast now. Homefries. Eggs and toast.

[GoodBoy]

No shopping yesterday, no shopping today. Just giving myself a break from the mayhem. Will have to pickup some items in a day or so, but that is business as usual.

[Giseledta]

i run a home childcare. i am only taking, keeping my reg kids. no extras. keeping our circle small. i have offered for those whos work shuts down to contact me ... i will be waving fees . will this hurt me... yep. but its the morally right thing to do . many people cannot afford to take the time off without pay. many do not have a stock pile. .. or even food for the next week.. shelves cleared ect... i have a stockpile. i have a plan . the basic will get paid. and nothing else.

i believe .. we will come to a full shut down at some point... but hopefully people will start ... making their circle smaller. slow this down.


adding... i have a family.. both are on the front lines of this. i have let them know.. i will do what ever it takes to support them . they both have been upfront with me.. the one parent says that making your circle as small as you can is very helpful .. it is slowing it down.. giving the people that need time to find solutions . we need solutions. many people are working at it.

i am hoping, really hoping that the PM will put forth a plan that is helpful for everyone to be able to say... ok i got this. i can stay home and still pay my rent, Mortage. as a independent Childcare provider... - a self employed person. the chances of me actually benifiting from it ( 3 weeks no pay is gonna hurt ... bad..) ... i expect are ... small. so i stress.


my hope... is that when all this is said and done... ... is that everyone who can , and does not havea emergency fund.... starts making changes so they can have one. 5.00 at a time is better then nadda.


Sassy 0 i tottaly understand a- your guilt about working from home when you can. and B ... frustration at people who are ignoring their wellbeing for whatever reasons. i am seeing some people do some things.. that i honestly.. i am working on my self control at not saying really bad words at them..... it really is better if i dont go out in public......

I understand how serious this virus is but I have to be honest I am getting to the point (and I know many will disagree with me) but I do wish they would just shut everything down. I am not sure the current precautions will help. For example yes my niece is off school for 3 weeks and all of the programs in their town are cancelled so the family will be staying in for the 3 weeks. But my cousin (her dad) is still working.

It is hard if we are able to work remotely we are encouraged to do so, but at the same time I feel bad working from home as so many of my co workers cannot. Those of us who can work remotely we are back line workers, the ones who do not interact with public on a daily basis. I feel bad being like I will be at home well everyone is at work. I do not know, I think any way you look at it, the situation sucks. For me you know what close us all down for 2 weeks to be safe but at the same time I have had many staff approach me who want the opposite, they do not want to be closed 2 weeks for various reasons.

I do not think there is a clear cut answer here.

[greentires4me]

My mom wants me to go on a toilet paper hunt i don’t exactly have money for that. $8.20 wont get me toilet paper. And it’s a nightmare out there.


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[SassyAshley]

@Giseledta, I have to agree yes those who are not doing anything bother me. My biggest concern right now is we have people at work who have vacations booked but not to "high risk" areas and so far their intentions are, this is my vacation time, I booked and paid for the trip I am going. This concerns me, any other time I would not care, go have fun but really travel is not safe right now.

It is like I said to a co worker who text me yesterday, this is not like anything we have faced in the past. Years ago we had a branch that had a break out of swine flu, about half the staff got it. The thing is only those who got sick were not at work. With Covid-19, if one of us is exposed we all go into quarantine.

As someone who is a homebody to start with, my main interactions with others is work and shopping. I know I can limit my contact but the fear is what are others around us doing. I know a lot of people who feel this should not affect their lives and they are the ones that concern me as if they get it those taking every per caution could also pay the price.

I guess only time will tell where all of this falls.

[Giseledta]

My mom wants me to go on a toilet paper hunt i don’t exactly have money for that. $8.20 wont get me toilet paper. And it’s a nightmare out there. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

wait a few days.. stores need time t restock.

[Giseledta]

@Giseledta, I have to agree yes those who are not doing anything bother me. My biggest concern right now is we have people at work who have vacations booked but not to "high risk" areas and so far their intentions are, this is my vacation time, I booked and paid for the trip I am going. This concerns me, any other time I would not care, go have fun but really travel is not safe right now.
It is like I said to a co worker who text me yesterday, this is not like anything we have faced in the past. Years ago we had a branch that had a break out of swine flu, about half the staff got it. The thing is only those who got sick were not at work. With Covid-19, if one of us is exposed we all go into quarantine.

As someone who is a homebody to start with, my main interactions with others is work and shopping. I know I can limit my contact but the fear is what are others around us doing. I know a lot of people who feel this should not affect their lives and they are the ones that concern me as if they get it those taking every per caution could also pay the price.

I guess only time will tell where all of this falls.

totally agreee

[lilo0003]

There really is no easy answer. Lots of people will be financially impacted if they don’t work. I think those that can isolate should but then small businesses will suffer when we all stay home. We are doing an eat from the freezer pantry challenge. It’s a great time use what we have on hand. The dog will get lots of walks.. Not commuting saves me 3 hrs a day but mean I won’t get my daily walk to the office.

[Giseledta]

i am seeing some small places getting a tad .. creative.. we have 3 places so far that are saying.. hey.. changing my hours... i am closing a hour early daily.. and doing any deliveries ( free) for anyone that calls and wants stuff delivered... fabulous. granted not all places can do that.. but.. its nice that some are.

[Giseledta]

ok.. today... no sleep in the middle of the night.. yep .. that is full on happening.
i cleaned...
i have the rest of the laundry to do ...
my bedroom to finish.. and 1 dc room to do ...
house is looking good.

i will reschedual a interview i had in place for tuesday. hate to do it.. but still doing it.

tomorrow... i am working full on in the dc rooms with the kids. and figureing a few things out.

i need to redo some money stuff... as yea... that is going to possibly be a thing. i am trying to avoid touching the saftey net. as .. i suspect this could go on for a bit.
i am really interested in what the pm puts in place.

[Frugalbigmama]

I am so tired today. I think i over did it yesterday.
Bedroom is beautiful and clean. Love it. And going to keep it clean.
Need to fold towels in dryer but i just dont feel like it.
I cooked a nice pasta dinner last night. Garlic alfredo with onions, mushrooms and asparagus. It was really good.

[SassyAshley]

I was actually just discussing money with Mom. As I mentioned they have already cut one of her shifts last week and this coming week they have cut a "few" of her hours (she will not tell me how many).

I know, I can continue to cover my bills and the house bills and I do have some money set aside. The biggest issue or question is going to be how long is this going to last. This is part of the reason I do wish they would just shut everything down now and then hopefully we can get back to "normal" life. I am worried about the long term, if they let this go on weeks or months and then shut everything down that will put our household in a difficult position as Mom does not have guaranteed hours. It is the catch 22, people shouldn't be shopping as Mom's work is not selling necessities but if people aren't shopping, her hours get cut. So for us a lot is unknown on how many weeks or months she could have reduced hours and then we may still be facing a shut down and who knows what compensation will happen during this time.

I am really not good with the unknowns but with that being said I do know we are one of the lucky ones as I do have an emergency fund which will be a last resort.

[SassyAshley]

Good Afternoon Everyone,
Did not get much done today, Mom says she is fine but she has been in a mood for a few days. Must admit this is messing with me a little bit as I am worried now that I told her about my anxiety, that instead of telling me what is going on so I can deal with it she will just not tell me. I knew based on her mood today we were not getting much done. I can just tell that this is not one of those times where if I push we will get it done instead right now it would be the opposite she would just shut down. What can I say you gotta pick your battles.

I did tackle a few things on my own, I did the floor around where I sit in the living room. As well I moved as much as I could and did the rest of the floor. I really need to get some of these bins out of the living room, they all need to be in the basement but they go in the room we have not cleaned yet.

I did take out a bag of garbage and our old swiffer vac which only holds a charge for 5 to 10 minutes. Last time I used it I got the kitchen done but then had to recharge to do the hallway and our kitchen is not that big. As well charging now takes forever, it took over 8 hours to re charge after I did the kitchen. Now that I have my stick vacuum we do not need it and since it doesn't hold a proper charge anymore doesn't make sense to try and sell or even give away.

I also did the dinning room floor. I am really loving having a proper broom, I know sounds so silly but it is great to clean and not be in pain. My back is loving this.

Mom did some cooking today, going to be honest not really sure what she made. Tried asking, she wasn't talking so I just went back to the cleaning the floor. Really hoping this mood passes soon.

Have a great night everyone

[Frugalbigmama]

DS Iis having sleepover #3. 4 friends tonight. Just happy that they aren't out partying. They were asleep before we came home at 1230 last night lol they had a lond day long boarding so they were tired.

[barbis9]

Wow everything is closing - arenas, Y, library, city hall. The stores are empty now of people. Have some returns but will wait. All Apple stores are closing because of the virus......