April 2020 Frugal Chatter Thread

[Frugalbigmama]

Morning! Beautiful day!

In my office today. So nice to be here today. Cleaned out my box I have been working out of. So nice to have it empty and everything filed and put away.

Will get on the laundry when I get home.

Dinner- Using the leftover turkey for quesidias with salad. Will make oven fries if DS wants them.

Have a great day everyone!

[Ciel]

Less wind and more sunshine today-will take it! Did a little yard work to pick up the broken bits from yesterday's storm. Enjoyed a ginger peach matcha tea-glad I added a spoonful of sugar as the ginger flavour is strong. I can see this tea being used in hot weather to make iced tea (as I have lots of it).

My second sweet potato got cooked and mashed with nutmeg. Had leftover porridge and tiny bit of juice with the potato for breakfast. Two seaweed snacks as well and it's not yet lunch time. Got the living room vacuumed so I'm thrilled it's DONE.

Will do a walk to Longos (exercise and soap check as I am still looking for a deal on liquid soap).

Our mayor indicated when enough staff is available (not sick or home for other reasons), leaf and yard waste pickup will be restored. Too bad that he did not mention whether the City staff finished mailing out the new trash tags to all residents this month. The Ontario premier is going to announce another 28 day extension on the closures, according to headlines. Don't have pop and other treats to endure a month of store closures.

[Giseledta]

ok.. wrote out a list of all the stuff i want to get done if i am shut down for another 28 days....lol. my dc parents are all saying it will be longer... any hoo...

on the top of that list was removing the popcorn ceiling in the dc rooms.... i got the one all done.. took about 4 hours. i will fill the random holes ,and sand lightly.. then paint. we have the paint in the basement.. i am hoping it is enough. i am pretty darn proud of how good it looks so far.

laundry is going..
going to take a bit of a break, then do a bit more housework.

[SassyAshley]

Good Afternoon Everyone,
Yesterday was not my day, it has been bubbling up for a few days, not feeling myself, feeling myself start to spin and just a recipe for knowing, I am not okay. Yesterday I could not take it anymore I had to get out so I went and dropped off 2 bottles of soap I bought for work (due to limiting and availability if we go out and see the larger bottles available we always grab the limit for work, at home we are stocked up). Then I went to No Frills to grab a few things, well what I thought was a few things, once I got in I bought a lot more.

In comparing my shop at No Frills to my shop at Costco, I really feel Costco is taking more precautions and honestly overall felt safer shopping there. Our store still makes you use a quarter for the carts and the carts are stored outside. So you have to go get your cart, get in line (line wasn't long at most waited 10 minutes) and then once you are in the store they have some wipes that if you want to (not being enforced) you can wipe down your cart. I personally brought my own wipes but this did bug me as your touching carts that are not wiped down.

Once in the store they now have the one way aisles, I get the concept but kind ours does not have the best layout (we are a smaller store trying to cram a lot into it) so I found I spent a lot of time "wondering" to be able to get the aisle I needed vs going in, getting what I needed and getting out. The stores seemed pretty well stocked except the baking aisle, I did not need baking supplies but did go down the aisle to get Oregano for Mom.

Also our store has limits posted but they are enforcing them. Sign said 2 cartons of eggs per customer, the person in front of my bought 4 and nothing was said.

All and all I got more than what we needed but with this being said honestly not sure when I will go back to No Frills, they are my closest store but might check out some that are a bit further away to see what precautions they are taking. So I grabbed some stuff we normally buy there to have on hand in case I do not shop there for a bit. I got:
1 x NN Rice (big bag, this lasts us 3 to 6 months, do not need now but they had and as I said may not go back for a bit)
4 x Yogurt $2
4 x Cucumber $0.97
2 x Cherry Tomato 50% off $1/each
2 x Ice Cream (a treat to have on hand)
1 x Eggs (will probably need in a week or 2 so grabbed now)
1 x Pineapple
1 x Cantaloupe
3 x Asparagus $1.27/lb
1 x NN Carrots (we are almost out and Mom seems really concerned about carrots)
2 x White Tortillas $1
3 x Whole Wheat Tortillas $1 (opps, meant to buy 2)
1 X Hamburger Buns (we are out but have burgers)
1 x Sausage Buns (we are out but have sausages)
3 x Old Cheddar $3.97
3 x Mozzarella $3.97
2 x Potatoes $2.97
2 x Mom Tea (Earl Grey, she prefers Tetley but it never goes on sale, but it was so I grabbed it)
1 x Oregano (apparently we were out)
2 x Garlic (we were out)
2 x Frozen Spinach $1.97
1 x Pepperoni (Big bag, will last us for months, this is our treat Homemade Pizza since we doing no Take-Out)

I feel like I got more but that is all I can think of right now and I have to look for my receipt, I think it is in my coat.

My grocery budget is so far blown at this point, I am really hoping this lasts us a couple weeks. I am really stressing right now, it feels like every time I think we are good something else comes up. We lasted 2 weeks without shopping, I have planned we should be able to easily go 2 to 3 weeks but, well, yeah.

Also, not sure what is up but I got so sick after dinner last night, I feel better today but still tired.

I feel weird saying this since I am working from home and we just had a long weekend but wow could I use a few days off. I kind of feel like there is no time, I am either working or trying to get stuff done at home. Plus with Mom home not working it just feels like everything is piling up.

Alright, gotta go find some lunch my 2 pm meeting has been moved to 2:30 so I better eat before my meeting.

Have a great afternoon everyone.

[walkonby]

@Sass eyAshley , I think we are ALL on our last nerve. It is not just you, believe me. Some people are just not posting what is happening to them......yet.
Take care! I shopped last on that nutso Saturday ( April 11th ) ! not realizing it was between the 2 Easter days that the stores would be closed, thereby being THE worst day to do a ' top up " shop .
Now I don't want to go for another shop for 2 weeks, other than for any fresh stuff.

[coupon girl]

sassy -hang in there girl

Well we just popped out for our pickup at fortinos -took waiting 30 minutes this time as they were backed up.

My first order 12 days ago was fine .
This is my second order .The girl screwed up I got ranch instead of cesar dressing -dont really care for ranch but will use it ,got a tub of cranberries instead of raisins plus was charged 4.99 instead of 3.81,asked for 2 zucchini should have been 3.42 but they substituted for organic 2 for 4.99 plus was missing my broccoli crowns 2.60 so I called and the lady I spoke to said they are swamped as more are doing it now and we have a lot of younger kids working ( I get it as I worked with younger ones years ago ,some are great others well)

She asked me if I wished to go back and get my broccoli ,raisins or she would just look over my bill and credit back about $10.00 in 7-10 business days ,I said credit

I am not that upset ,its life she said she would credit back the 4.99 zucchini and charge the cheaper price same as my raisins and the credit for my missing broccoli,so I said that's great .

What can you do I advoided going into the store .

[SassyAshley]

Coupon Girl, my step mom kind of has the opposite happen. She ordered all Organic and got all regular. As well she mentioned, the veggies she got where not the best, most needed be used up with in a day or two as they were starting to turn.

We have 2 of the same chain within 10 minutes of each other, bro and his gf said they have never had an issue with the one they use, but step mom ordered from the other one. The one Step Mom ordered from has hired a bunch of new staff to add more slots which is great except it has lead to more order issues with orders.

I do not know if they have relaxed the rules a little bit now that more people are shopping this way but I know it used to be an issue. Each order is timed and to keep their times down staff would mark items as out of stock to keep there times down. So if you ordered 1 or 2 items from the Pharmacy which is the other end of most stores instead of getting these items they would mark them out as out of stock to keep their time down. This did not make sense to me but I heard they keep track of time but no one checks if they had stock of items marked as out of stock.

I have been toying with trying one order and seeing how it goes, still have not decided.

[Arjon]

For better or worse, PC Express, Instacart and similar services are overwhelmed. Just one example from a couple of weeks ago was Walmart announcing they were looking to hire 10,000 people due to the increased demand. That's an average of almost 250 per store. Even taking into account the likelihood that many of these positions are part-time, that's A LOT of new staff, few of whom will be familiar enough with the store layouts, company procedures, etc. to be up to speed nearly immediately.

[Angela273]

Today...2.5hrs school work with ds, school work with the kids, 1 load of laundry, washed common touch areas (light switches, door knobs, doors, walls in busy kid areas, kitchen cupboard doors), and 2 loaves of banana bread are in the oven.

[Ciel]

This spring, sibling switched around the pantry and refrigerator (and did most of the vacuuming). Problem is that the fridge is in an alcove so every time that motor runs, it sounds like a low speed mixer going on for several minutes and the alcove enhances the volume. Plus less space around fridge for air flow-should prove interesting come summer and it might help Mom's bread doughs rise faster (due to heat from coils). The wall light switch is mostly blocked so I will add a glow in the dark element to make it visible at night when the kitchen light is turned off.

Today, Canada Post indicated my Quebec order landed/arrived in Stoney Creek with ETA delivery of this afternoon. Our local postal agent came after to drop off lettermail but no parcel. Bopped into local post office before 5pm and no parcel in system. Walked home and saw snowflakes dropping randomly on my way back. Snow/showers are in the forecast tomorrow, so I'll stay home instead. No Staples cord order either (where or where did it end up??)

Purchased pop, some Easter chocolates on sale and picked up current issue of Alive (kind of surprised store staff did not remove that rack and magazines too like some other products that got isolated in closed dept.).

Canned pineapple and kidney beans are going on my next online order in May. I want some options for the pantry to stave off big shops at local stores, what with lineups and cart options being restricted.

Think that some kind of May Day celebration at home is in order-to mark the time that one spends at home.

Will endeavour to get some more free Bluprint videos viewed today as the free access ends in two days' time.

[Ciel]

Today...2.5hrs school work with ds, school work with the kids, 1 load of laundry, washed common touch areas (light switches, door knobs, doors, walls in busy kid areas, kitchen cupboard doors), and 2 loaves of banana bread are in the oven.

Thanks for the reminder to wipe off surfaces-plenty of wipes on hand now. Best time for me to do it is when I'm up first in the morning and before I watch the morning headlines after breakfast.

[Granger]

Hi everyone!

I front loaded my work week. I have been on the computer most of last night and all day today. Now I can just support my students and my families, plan for next week and mark. I am assigning my work in a weekly fashion. One lesson string/post for each of Literacy, Math and Science (my friend does my Social Studies and I teach her Science). I would say I am having 50% participate in most activities, 30% in some and 20% not at all.

For my own three, we are falling in the 30% category. Some. They are doing learning activities every day and I am communicating and sharing their learning with their teachers, even if it is not what they assigned. I am taking this unique opportunity to help my kids with what they need help with and if it is not what the teacher assigns than oh well!

I am off for a walk. Fitbit been buzzing all day saying I am not moving enough. Tomorrow will be fun as I have niece and nephew (I am their child care for nurse mom for those who don't know). I will do less work and more steps for sure. Although I tend to get a lot of school work done because my own kids fight less when their cousins are over!!! But, I like to be able to give the attention without distraction if it is needed.

[lilo0003]

I debated going for a No Frills shop as they have some sales that line up with my offers and stuff we need, but I decided we will make do. Shopping at the end of the flyer means they will likely be out of stock. I think a Costco trip is likely in the next week but so far people report the lines move quickly.

[flemeth]

Good morning all
Will be going out today for some essential grocery that we need. There is no milk and fruits in my house so I definitely have to go today. Will get everything that I need so I would not have to go back another day. Hoping to buy enough to last a couple weeks.. Just going to 1 store. Will report how it went. Don’t think I will be saving much

[johnb56789]

For better or worse, PC Express, Instacart and similar services are overwhelmed. Just one example from a couple of weeks ago was Walmart announcing they were looking to hire 10,000 people due to the increased demand. That's an average of almost 250 per store. Even taking into account the likelihood that many of these positions are part-time, that's A LOT of new staff, few of whom will be familiar enough with the store layouts, company procedures, etc. to be up to speed nearly immediately.

That is definitely the case at our store. We have a bunch of temps working stock during the day and messing everything up cause they aren't getting proper training. So a few of us on nights are planning on working OT for 4hrs after one of our shifts and training these temps (Since no one on days is bothering to do it!!). Cause even though they are suppose to be taking pressure off us, they are actually adding even more work since we have to fix their mistakes.