August 2020 Frugal Chatter Thread

[Frugalbigmama]

I have had a tall plastic bin with drawers filled with school supplies and whatever has been shoved in there for 10 years.
Finally cleaned it out! I sorted all the school supplies into piles on my portable table. I then washed all the drawers from the storage unit and they are outside drying in the sunshine. I will keep supplies needed for DS (brand new scientific calculator that was reg over $80 that I picked up for $2 just incase!!) Then making a huge cheap lot to post for sale on market place! I also have a fantastic plastic bin to house all the odds and ends of crayons etc that I will post for sale. So happy I don't have to spend a dime on school supplies. I'm not even buying anymore school uniforms as he only has 2 years left.

Put a load in the washer and will hang it out to dry.

Off to sort DS's school supplies.

[Frugalbigmama]

2 school lots pending pick up this afternoon! Room on my table. Gotta keep posting.

Edit to add that she wants another school lot so adding it to her pile. All 3 sold right away!!

WOW etransfer received and she sent me $4 extra!! I added some nice poster colour pages to her stuff.

[SassyAshley]

Good Afternoon,
Today has been steady, not sure I can get everything off my plate by the time I leave the branch but I am hopeful it won't be a 10 pm kind of night, gotta take the small victories.

There are quite a few things to get done at home, I was thinking about it last night. I know they really need to get done and I was tempted to write myself what would become a nice long to do list but on the flip side I am not sure I have that in me. I know the house stuff needs to get done but a the same time I feel like I need some me time which right now is now Netflix and Chill time, so we will see how the weekend goes.

I am now enemies with the stairs at work, there are only 4 stairs but this morning alone in half an hour I went up and down them 20+ plus times running down to the desk I am working at printing someone for someone and running back up.

I don't want to jinx myself but I am feeling okay right now so maybe I can knock out a few small things when I get home tonight.

I also need to figure out what we are going to do about our bathroom, the taps are going again. The first time they "fixed" them was the first year we lived in the house and it was a temp fix, that lasted a few years and they "fixed" again another temp fix. I do not know if I push my luck and hope the can "fix" them again or look at having the bathroom done. The issue is to properly fix them they need to rip out the wall and my concern is we only have 1 bathroom how long would it take to fix properly. The first time they said our bathroom would be unusable for 3 days which does not work since we only have 1 bathroom and if why we went with the temp fix the first time. The second time the guy only offered the temp fix as he was not interested in taking on a large job at the time.

In our old house we had Bath Fitter, we liked it but I have heard mixed reviews, maybe I should get them to quote us again. Our bathroom could do with a little upgrading and the tap needs to be done. Something to ponder.

Alright back to work. Have a great day everyone

[Frugalbigmama]

I am the only one home for dinner tonight but I feel like a real good meal. Decided to take a roast beef out of the freezer and thaw it quickly. It is in the oven now. Potatoes are peeled and will make green beans. Dinner done!! mmmm can't wait!!

Have a 2nd pick up arranged.

Now I get to decide what to use my empty plastic drawer bin for.

[Frugalbigmama]

Good Afternoon,
Today has been steady, not sure I can get everything off my plate by the time I leave the branch but I am hopeful it won't be a 10 pm kind of night, gotta take the small victories.

There are quite a few things to get done at home, I was thinking about it last night. I know they really need to get done and I was tempted to write myself what would become a nice long to do list but on the flip side I am not sure I have that in me. I know the house stuff needs to get done but a the same time I feel like I need some me time which right now is now Netflix and Chill time, so we will see how the weekend goes.

I am now enemies with the stairs at work, there are only 4 stairs but this morning alone in half an hour I went up and down them 20+ plus times running down to the desk I am working at printing someone for someone and running back up.

I don't want to jinx myself but I am feeling okay right now so maybe I can knock out a few small things when I get home tonight.

I also need to figure out what we are going to do about our bathroom, the taps are going again. The first time they "fixed" them was the first year we lived in the house and it was a temp fix, that lasted a few years and they "fixed" again another temp fix. I do not know if I push my luck and hope the can "fix" them again or look at having the bathroom done. The issue is to properly fix them they need to rip out the wall and my concern is we only have 1 bathroom how long would it take to fix properly. The first time they said our bathroom would be unusable for 3 days which does not work since we only have 1 bathroom and if why we went with the temp fix the first time. The second time the guy only offered the temp fix as he was not interested in taking on a large job at the time.

In our old house we had Bath Fitter, we liked it but I have heard mixed reviews, maybe I should get them to quote us again. Our bathroom could do with a little upgrading and the tap needs to be done. Something to ponder.

Alright back to work. Have a great day everyone

We used bath fitter for our old house (we were building a new house and renting out the house we lived in but needed to upgrade the bathroom) As it was our only bathroom and we lived in the bush and far away from family we used bath fitter for the done in one day benefit. Pricey but it was done quickly.

[Frugalbigmama]

5 mins before i had to leave to drive DS to work someone messaged me on $20 item saying they were from out of town but here eating at local restaurant and could come when done. I said sure will put on porch and you can leave cash or etransfer. Came home and its gone and $20 under my mat
Im done for the day. I cleaned up the kitchen. Dinmer in fridge and dishes washed.
My honey brought me a butter tart so i will heat that up later with a bit of ice cream

[CheriLyn]

Does anyone know if it was okay to mail regular mail without addressee name?

5 mins before i had to leave to drive DS to work someone messaged me on $20 item saying they were from out of town but here eating at local restaurant and could come when done. I said sure will put on porch and you can leave cash or etransfer. Came home and its gone and $20 under my mat

Almost irrelevant but, this post makes me happy that we still live is a nice place! 🙂

[coupon girl]

So exhausted today -did not make it out to the bank .I managed to cut the back lawn thou and did a load of laundry and hung it .

Watching 3 grandkids off and on is tiring .This morning thou sebastian told his mom "i have fun at nana and papa's " so that made me feel good .All in all we by the end of august we will have had him 16 days (4 days at a time)in total this summer and that helped my daughter and her hubby work a lot better at home without him around .

Friday off to my son's to watch just one ashlyn ,may take her to a splash pad near by her house.

[lilo0003]

1st time on the GO train in 5 months. It was a little weird. When I left the office I never imagined it would be this long and I left shoes and food in my desk. I wanted the shoes and did not want to waste the food so I finally made the trip and I paired it with lunch on the patio with my absolute favourite coworker so it was a good day.

[Ciel]

The photo order (sent by Fujifilm Canada for Shoppers Photo) arrived today! Yay! Noticed a few pictures have faces kind of cropped off but I have to get better at the edit feature for the files online. Have most photos put into albums with dates and any names or places of note.

Was able to get into my PC Optimum and Shoppers Photo accounts last night. Whew! Might consider popping into local store tomorrow to see if photo kiosk shows any price changes for photos (25% off) or not.

While I am thrilled not to have any festivals closing streets for the summer, I do find it strange that there is no CNE for August. That fair is like the sign that summer is winding down.

Haircrafters is adding a $3 charge to service for cleaning and requesting contactless payment over cash if possible (and reminder to provide electronic tip for staff as cash tip jars are removed).

Guess with all the confusion about back to school processes in Ontario, parents are not probably not worrying about class or student photo outfits? I think booking the photographer would be quite different for this year as not all students will be in schools on the same day.

The live action Mulan movie is set to stream on Disney+ in early Sept, provided accountholders are willing to pay an extra $40 Cdn (US accountholders pay $29.99) on top of the monthly fee to see the movie. I want to see the movie but might have to wait for the DVD or theatre experience. $40 is a little too much for me in order to see the movie.

[SassyAshley]

I feel the same way about leaving even though we were all talking saying we do not know for how long, I never expected it to be August and everyone not being called back to the office. Even more shocking for me is now we are discussing that anyone that remote is now being given the option of staying remote. I can honestly say I never would have seen them coming but this is the new norm we live in

Although I do find it funny now when we are hiring everyone expects positions to be remote including those I do not know how it could be remote. Like we were hiring an Assistant Plant Manager so you are helping oversee our production floor and people thought this would be a remote position. Or our retail branches we were looking for counter staff and the ad includes serving customer as they came into the branch and working in the showroom but still people ask if the job can be done remotely.

1st time on the GO train in 5 months. It was a little weird. When I left the office I never imagined it would be this long and I left shoes and food in my desk. I wanted the shoes and did not want to waste the food so I finally made the trip and I paired it with lunch on the patio with my absolute favourite coworker so it was a good day.

[Arjon]

I feel the same way about leaving even though we were all talking saying we do not know for how long, I never expected it to be August and everyone not being called back to the office.

Unlike you, I thought back in March that the best case scenario was at least six months before life got back to basically the way it was. And since I'm generally an optimist, if forced to bet the over/under, I'd have picked the former.

The basic reason is that I knew / know a fair number of people who don't have enough self-discipline to keep from pushing boundaries. Back in March for example, some were shopping three to four times per week, often to multiple stores per trip, self-justifying this on the basis that they used to shop almost every day, also often hitting multiple stores per trip. Granted this is a selected example, but who among us doesn't know people who, with only a little more planning and consideration, could limit their activity levels more than they are actually limiting them?

Mainly because I knew there were and are people like this, distancing and masks were never going to be a complete solution, and as for developing a cure, it would have been highly optimistic to think that would happen by now, even factoring in that the virus had been identified before the pandemic was declared.

[SassyAshley]

I did not think we would be out of the Pandemic but I never expected especially for our company we would still have people from working and looking at this long term. I figured probably June they would start calling us back as we are in the busy season and need to get everyone back in routines and being on site to support each other.

For myself personally since I can work so many roles this is my home is the one it is, I can do my job or if needed I can cover Order Desk, Front Counter or Invoicing all in the same locations. Now call it ironic I am back in a branch but I am not in my home branch, instead I am in our production plant covering Production Admin.

But now I am being moved to remote permanently which I may have dreamed about some days but never thought it would be my reality for the reason above. Anyone does not come in if I was in the office we have the answer but now I will be off-site.

Unlike you, I thought back in March that the best case scenario was at least six months before life got back to basically the way it was. And since I'm generally an optimist, if forced to bet the over/under, I'd have picked the former.

The basic reason is that I knew / know a fair number of people who don't have enough self-discipline to keep from pushing boundaries. Back in March for example, some were shopping three to four times per week, often to multiple stores per trip, self-justifying this on the basis that they used to shop almost every day, also often hitting multiple stores per trip. Granted this is a selected example, but who among us doesn't know people who, with only a little more planning and consideration, could limit their activity levels more than they are actually limiting them?

Mainly because I knew there were and are people like this, distancing and masks were never going to be a complete solution, and as for developing a cure, it would have been highly optimistic to think that would happen by now, even factoring in that the virus had been identified before the pandemic was declared.

[SassyAshley]

Good Afternoon Everyone,
Last night turned out to be an okay night, I did not get everything done I wanted too but I knew I was being a little ambition for a work night.

Dishwasher was emptied and half of the hand dishes were done (this is where I came up short but needed the sink to make dinner).

Lunch was made for today, this is amazing I keep forgetting to pack my lunch so I go insane in the morning trying to get it done as I run out the door. I must do some sort of meal prep this weekend so I have some grab and go meals. Maybe Chicken Fajita Rice in the Instant Pot.

I used the Air Fryer to make Roasted Potatoes to go with dinner, they were good but I am still learning the ins and outs of the Air Fryer. One thing I was not expecting is how loud it is.

I also re loaded the dishwasher before I did the hand dishes.

I think that was about it, I got a little bit of work done but that was it. It is what it is, I will probably end up doing some work this weekend, again it is what it is.

Time to clean up the desk and see what I need to tackle before the end of the day. Have a great day everyone

[barbis9]

Barbis, funny you mention Biway, I read an article that popped up on my Facebook that Biway is reopening one location in Toronto next year.

Reminded me of being a child and going with my Nanny and I remember digging through the bins with her looking for specific sizes or styles of products.

Keep me posted about the possible Toronto location.