June 2020 Frugal Chatter Thread

[Ciel]

The last big prize that I won was a Galaxy Samsung tablet 10.1 back in 2012, from a 7-Eleven contest.

Is the Samsung tablet still working with updates and apps? Have you checked to see if there's a designated date when OS won't update anymore? I'd be partial to a Samsung tablet if funds/future contest win were to all a purchase one fine day at Shoppers.

[Ciel]

middle child mowed today. heat for 2 days. sigh. should be interesting. Hubby has to take my mom to the bank on Thursday. should be interesting she hasnt been out of the house since .... mid march...

How did she manage to stay home for three months? I know you've been doing the bulk of errands/shopping for her but has your Mom not gone a little restless since the temperatures got into seriously warm/hot mode in past two weeks?

[lizzie bargain]

Well our getaway to Invermere, BC was cancelled last night by the host as she was worried about Covid-not to be daunted I sent out 6 requests in the surrounding area( I belong to a home exchange network) and got 3 yes's. Anyway we will be staying in a lovely wooden luxurious chalet and enjoying the mountains and lake for a few nights. My brother and SIL are coming too.

[Giseledta]

my mom lives in the country.. and tends to be worried about illness at reg time..... covid... nope... not leaving her property.

How did she manage to stay home for three months? I know you've been doing the bulk of errands/shopping for her but has your Mom not gone a little restless since the temperatures got into seriously warm/hot mode in past two weeks?

[SassyAshley]

Okay, I turned this day around and I found my ambition, yippee. My goals was to try to get a lot done today so tomorrow if I want I can do nothing. Laundry is done, folded and just needs to be put away.

Food Prep is done:

Romaine has been chopped and packaged for use during the week

My bananas were going fast so yesterday I made Muffins but still had 2 bananas left so I found a recipe for Chunky Monkey Banana Blondies, these have made and are cooling will try them after dinner. It had Bananas, Peanut Butter and Chocolate, I cannot see how it won't be good.

I found some cooked Pasta in the fridge that needed to be used so I made a Pasta Salad by making a Miracle Whip Dill Dressing and added some Celery, Red Onion and Red Peppers. I love Peppers in my Pasta Salad it adds a nice sweet crunchy bite.

I also made a Simple Cranberry loaf, I love Quick Breads, I always have they are so easy and quick to throw together. This one took care of 2 things, it used about half of the Buttermilk I made from the Whey from my Homemade Yogurt. It also used up the rest of the bag of Cranberries I have been trying to get out of upstairs freezer. Still need to try this but it smells really good, maybe tomorrow with tea before breakfast.

We had a Chicken Carcass in our upstairs freezers that was taking up way too much space, instead of putting it in a freezer bag it was frozen in a big Tupperware container and taking up valuable space. So I put this in the Instant Pot and turned it into Chicken Stock, the stock will be much easier the store in the freezer and better yet can be put in the chest freezer. It was so easy I just threw it all in set the Instant Pot and walked away for over 2 hours. I did not have to worry about a pot on the stove, I could just let it go.

I still need to make myself some overnight oats so I have some quick grab and eat breakfasts for a few morning this week. I will probably whip this up after dinner and then I am done, unless I wake up tomorrow super ambitious and decide there are other things I want to make.

Have a great night everyone.

[Frugalbigmama]

Well i made a pasta dish for dinner tonight from June calendar recipe! (Mushrooms/asparagus/ tons of fresh garlic) Hopefully it is good lol. I cooked everything up and will heat up in pan once he comes in from shop( he has a kijiji sale ) The wine that i bought is good so at least we have that.

[lilo0003]

I could not find my energy today. Just dragging my bum. I finally decided to go to SDM to line up some offers and spent 105.00 but got 67000 points should have been 77000 so I did an inquiry. They had Gillette razors on for 10.99 plus 2000 points each pack and a P &G offer of 10000 points with every 30.00 spent. The offer that’s missing is the flyer offer of 10000 points when you spend 50.00 on a number of P & G products. Even without the missing points it was a good shop. I have not earned points like that in eons.

[Ciel]

Found a perfect outdoor mat that references wine from Kitchen Stuff Plus:
https://www.kitchenstuffplus.com/ksp...oormat-natural

I was looking at KSP online to have a look at Ricardo items when I saw that everything in that brand is on sale. So I hastened to order my precious wooden spoons, nylon food turner and a package of paper napkins (I love patterned ones). Then I checked out Harman items and coir mats and found that lovely one above!

[Ciel]

I did a budget review this morning. I do it twice yearly since I retired and I am glad to say our net worth has gone up rather than down so no complaints here. Of course hubs and I both still work PT( pre Covid) and we tend to be frugal-other than I do spend on travel. DD is going to 4th year of uni in Sept so that should help too.

Wow, time is flying with your DD in 4th year! Seems like she just started university or 2nd year!

[Ciel]

Surprise this morning was brother telling me a plumber was about to visit the house to deal with the year-old sink blockage issue (plumber did something and I have no idea of the cost or what was the culprit-so no wall breaking needed.). I left to find wi-fi at my fave site but the bank wi-fi was out as part of the plaza as well as the one across the street and traffic lights at that intersection were all knocked out. Had to tinker with sluggish wi-fi from Fortinos that kept dropping or disconnecting. Noticed my touchpad/Start Menu seemed to be operating on a more basic format and I did not know if I hit some key to change the setup. Ticked, I logged off and started walking to Walmart (but not without tweeting to electric companies and City about the power outage).

Since I could not check Dollarama for thin cording for face masks, I visited Dollar Tree after I spent 40+ min on wi-fi at the edge of Walmart's parking lot (grocery side doors are now open at Walmart!). In Dollar Tree's scrapbooking/craft aisle, I found Craft Making jewelery/beading cord (suede like in mid-tone colours!) in 6 colours, with 3 x 1m lengths of each colour. 18m of cord for $1.25. Felt like a genius who scored in sewing notion jackpot find! I have since used most of two colours (12in per loop each side) in the one-layer masks made from the grey shirt fabric. I wore one of my masks with my MacGyvered loops (blue narrow twill thread from one shirt collar innards and purple shoelace loop on other side, so mask looked pulled on one side due to smaller shoelace loop) around town today as temp was breezy and cool as practice for the local transit service wanting riders to wear masks on June 22 on the buses. I also picked up some treats, a USB C to USB A cord, and some household items at Dollar Tree (must have spent 20min walking 2/3 of aisles--so tempting).

However I'm still on a handkerchief quest to have masks for the muggy days as the fabric is lighter but I intend to double the layers by sewing the folded in half hankies into a mask with the cording loops. Brother said he got last year's boxes of hankies at Moores, which does not show merchandise on its website but does show tux/suit rentals. To borrow Granger's expression, "le sigh" applies here.

Evening walk to Value Village-fond someone's shattered screen iPhone (XS-I read iphonewiki and weighed it; the other XS Max is about 30g heavier)on road shoulder with silicone case about 1.5m away. I'm not leaving the phone there! Found a stray produce bag to place phone inside. I proceed to learn over the hour (without thinking to try to press buttons) that phone has at least 4 notification sounds (phone ringtone, text notification-it matches that one used in Bad Boy Furniture ads, email notification and one sound that I only heard once-might be an app). When I got home, I realized I could get the desktop screen to show for a few seconds and that there is an ID login requirement but most of screen is hard to read in the centre. Did get a battery image with lightning image before phone died. Found 2 nickels on walk too but no hankies at the thrift store.

Called my friend and she said it'd be possible to get a lightning cable for a few dollars at Dollarama. I plan to charge phone tomorrow (if the cable is under $5) and see if I can figure out any info about owner then try Rogers (the network showing on phone) store to figure out whose phone it is. Last year in July, I found someone's Samsung phone but ignored it for a day then could not contain my curiousity. Feels like the Universe is testing my interest in cellphones with other people's phones...app-tastic.

Inspired by reading @SassyAshley 's food prep posts, I know I have to save the celery bunch I've left to wither in the fridge this past week and cut up the last of the watermelon (it won't last for next Wed's hot and muggy weather). Should think about making a fruity iced tea in advance too as I tend to drink liquids on hot days then start craving salt and carbs by 6pm. Must cook some lentils with herbs to have as something in the fridge ready to add to whatever else is on hand.

[Ciel]

Wow, what pretty places in Grimsby! https://twitter.com/cottagelife/stat...10011503198208
#DecorGoals

[Angela273]

Is the Samsung tablet still working with updates and apps? Have you checked to see if there's a designated date when OS won't update anymore? I'd be partial to a Samsung tablet if funds/future contest win were to all a purchase one fine day at Shoppers.

We haven’t used the tablet very often over the years. I charged it today, after reading your questions. I was able to download several educational apps for our children. When I downloaded any of the apps that ds currently uses for school, it gives error messages when I try to log into his school accounts. It doesn’t seem to be compatible. I can search on the internet and watch YouTube videos, but not directly through the YouTube app. When I tried to log into our Netflix account, it kept insisting that the login info was wrong...even though we know that it is correct.

[SassyAshley]

I am not expert but were there any Software Updates? Sometimes these need to be done before Apps can be updated or used.

We haven’t used the tablet very often over the years. I charged it today, after reading your questions. I was able to download several educational apps for our children. When I downloaded any of the apps that ds currently uses for school, it gives error messages when I try to log into his school accounts. It doesn’t seem to be compatible. I can search on the internet and watch YouTube videos, but not directly through the YouTube app. When I tried to log into our Netflix account, it kept insisting that the login info was wrong...even though we know that it is correct.

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
Was up early this morning and it felt good, it felt normal. As much as sometimes I think I am adjusting the new normal there are still those moments when something reminds you of how things were before. I know my schedule has been off since I started working from home and not having office days to knock my routine back on track. It is weird, I love being a morning person, I find it is my most productive time and my me time but I have lost it that get up an go since I started working from home.

I decided since I was up early I would wash my bedding. I have even decided to wash the pillow topper, mine is a separate one I got from Costco. I do not wash it every time I do the bedding as I have a mattress protector over it and it is a bit of a pain to wash. Decided today I would wash it as well. I am about half way through my bedding.

I went to go and empty the dishwasher only to realize it never got turned on last night so I ran it this morning, it is just finishing up now. Once it has cooled down a little bit I will empty it.

I still need to make some overnight oats for a couple breakfasts this week where I won't really have time to eat.

I tried the Chunky Monkey Blondies last night, they are okay, although a little disappointed. It is more like a Banana Bread baked in a 8x8 pan instead of a loaf pan and I choose the recipe because it had peanut butter in it but you do not taste the peanut butter. I will say it is a nice and moist but I wanted more of the peanut butter flavour as I love the combination of Banana and Peanut Butter.

[coupon girl]

morning -off to shoppers I went to save the extra 20% discount form seniors as I needed allergy eye drops (ragweed ,hayfever allergy here mind you it does get better as you age ,but still the odd sneeze and itchy eyes (visine was 9.99 and life brand was 6.79-seniors discount $5.43 what a difference in price )used 8.50 in coupons and 6.00 from checkout51 but still spent $128 got 20 times the points .

Yesterday we went to see our daughter and grandson ,(he hubby was out of town)haven't seen them in a long time (months)we didn't kiss or hug but my grandson who is 4 in sept was elated to see us ,so nice to reconnect in person ,not on a tablet .