2024-12 December Frugal Thread

[coupon girl]

Morning so cold out ,brrrr.

Called my hairdresser she was able to fit hubby and i in next week ,so i put together a small gift bag for her with a $20.00 cash xmas gift also will tip her nice.
So glad i have tissue paper and bags on hand along with a few other items socks,shower gel ,puff,xmas hand soap and a small box of chocolate wafer cookie thins .

Gotta clean and and if i feel like it wrap today .

[coupon girl]

I just went over to shoppers seniors day for me -i utilized points and a 10.00 promo senior card to get a few stock up deals

(2) bounce 200 sheets on sale=11.99=23.98-4,000 points =19.98 or 9.99 each super great price for 200.
p.c raisin bran cereal on sale 4.50-700 points=3.80 this has wayyyb more raisins than kelloggs raisin bran
(2) arm and hammer toothpaste 4.99-20%=3.99-50 NED cpn=3.49-2,000 p.c points when you buy 2=2.49 each great stockup price for me
(1) crest pro health toothpaste on sale 3.99-1,000 points =2.99
softsoap body wash 4.49-300 points=4.19
bananas 1.77-20%=1.42-100 points=1.32
plus milk and joyya chocolate milk 3.99-.50=3.49

i got 9,196 points saved 1.50 in coupons plus the seniors discount on my milk and bananas plus 10.00 promo card from last seniors day -gotta love the items i got as i dont have a costco membership ,so now i will not need to buy dryer sheets for ages.

[harbie]

Finally got a day off so I went to physio at 7am and she worked me over for sure. Definitely got my moneys worth (actually my insurance worth)

I'm taking today as a day of nothing. My entire Dec has and is booked for work( some weeks it’s 6days a week!) so I need it. Dh and I will go to the gym later and I went for a 45 min walk with my dad earlier.

I found out that I could wait up to a year to see my obgyn even though she was the one that was Jupyter dr and surgeon with my cancer. I was put on a cancellation list but who knows if that will shorten my wait so I’m in a bit of a funk from that news. I do have to option to see my GP about HRT but I have some concerns about his experience ( graduated in 2020 and took over for my dr in 2021/2022). I just don’t want a prescription I need to talk about my risks especially with my history.

Yikes sorry for the TMI . Anyways I’ve been in a bit more of a pity spending mode rather than a frugal mode. I stopped in at Thriftys yesterday after an insanely long day at work and MASSIVE traffic jams/accidents to grab some vegan cheese that was on sale but ended up grabbing over $70 in total of that and other stuff. Dill pickle hummus, dill pickle nooch popcorn, spicy dill pickle cashews were the highlights. I did manage to change my mind about takeout and come home and make dinner so that’s a savings I guess . It’s a win in my book.

Finally got my headphones that Dh bought me and I absolutely LOVE them! Saved $70, got free shipping and a $29.95 drawstring bag free. Hubby has paid attention

Hope everyone has a great rest of the day and stays safe.

[walkonby]

@harbie I rather enjoyed your TMI, ((hugs )) we need to let things spill out from time to time or we explode! ( often at the wrong person too ) .
Frugal spending you say? I was guilty of going rogue and grabbing a few " extra " cheeses today at NF ( for the Charcuterie board on Dec 25th ).
My justification was they were on sale...lol.
Bought 2 x Smoked Gouda, 1 large Double Cream Brie, 1 more Camembert, 1 Blue cheese, and a few more Boursin. Presently we have more than
enough of the harder cheeses so couldn't pretend we needed any of those.
That was followed by getting some fancier crackers, variety is everything for the board.

Tonight I watched our Leaf's win ( again! ) ...lifts the spirits.

[Giseledta]

Finally got a day off so I went to physio at 7am and she worked me over for sure. Definitely got my moneys worth (actually my insurance worth)

I'm taking today as a day of nothing. My entire Dec has and is booked for work( some weeks it’s 6days a week!) so I need it. Dh and I will go to the gym later and I went for a 45 min walk with my dad earlier.

I found out that I could wait up to a year to see my obgyn even though she was the one that was Jupyter dr and surgeon with my cancer. I was put on a cancellation list but who knows if that will shorten my wait so I’m in a bit of a funk from that news. I do have to option to see my GP about HRT but I have some concerns about his experience ( graduated in 2020 and took over for my dr in 2021/2022). I just don’t want a prescription I need to talk about my risks especially with my history.

Yikes sorry for the TMI . Anyways I’ve been in a bit more of a pity spending mode rather than a frugal mode. I stopped in at Thriftys yesterday after an insanely long day at work and MASSIVE traffic jams/accidents to grab some vegan cheese that was on sale but ended up grabbing over $70 in total of that and other stuff. Dill pickle hummus, dill pickle nooch popcorn, spicy dill pickle cashews were the highlights. I did manage to change my mind about takeout and come home and make dinner so that’s a savings I guess . It’s a win in my book.

Finally got my headphones that Dh bought me and I absolutely LOVE them! Saved $70, got free shipping and a $29.95 drawstring bag free. Hubby has paid attention

Hope everyone has a great rest of the day and stays safe.

Sent you a message. And hugs

Sent from my SM-A526W using Tapatalk

[coupon girl]

Morning went to Once upon a child with my daughters clothing from Sebastian got $26.00 for her .A crowd of women where outside waiting for the doors to open as boys clothing was 70% off (they have too much i was told) and disney stuff for girls was all sorted in a rack by the door (people were after the disney clothing ).

So i looked and found a summer "stitch nightie" for Cara $4.00 a bargain .

Now in doing laundry and i may attempt to wrap .

On Saturday we are going to watch Ashlyn in the santa parade in my sons town -she is in the school band .

[lilo0003]

I finally got the tree up and decorated. Everything else was done weeks ago. May do a bit of baking Saturday and freeze it until Christmas. The kids asked for very little this year so the wrapping is almost done. DH has hemmed hawed about an Apple Watch so that is his gift. I have one and like it he is way more tech savvy than I so he will love it.

[coupon girl]

Oh my goodness watched Ashlyn in a xmas parade today and it was -9 degrees after an hour ,my poor toes and fingers .Plus i had to hang onto hubbys arm as my legs stiffened up(darn arthritis).

It was priceless seeing her then the look on little miss Caras face when she saw Santa on the float at the end was sooooo worth it!!

Home getting warm with a warm cup of tea ,may do more wrapping tonight.

[SassyAshley]

Good Evening Everyone,
Another year of inventory is done and I am exhausted.

I worked in the branch until almost 7 last night getting everything entered, we had pizza for dinner so I stopped and grabbed Mom a sub on the way home as she had not had dinner.

We were back at 7 am this morning to knock it out we were out around noon or 1 but my day wasn't done as a few locations weren't closed yet so I was getting emails to look into outages. Now I want for the final results to come out tomorrow and see what I have to dig into this week.

When I went to go in this morning my check engine light came on and my car sent a notification to my phone that the engine misfired. I didn't hear anything funny when I started her but she still needs her winter tires so it sound like I will be next for service. I am still trying to get used to my car talking to me but it also gives me a warm cozy feeling to know why.

On my way home I ran into No Frills because I have a couple of Potlucks to attend this week, I signed up to bring my Ground Chicken and Sweet Potato Chili and it hit me at 4:30 this morning I don't think I have White Kidney Beans. I forget to check before I went into work so I ran into No Frills to be safe because I plan to cook it tomorrow (in the slow cooker) and then just reheat for the Potluck.

Also grabbed a few more groceries well I was there, Price Matched Green Onions and Ground Beef, Grabbed Sour Cream, Chai Tea, Clementines, Cornmeal.

When I got home I turned the pack of Ground Beef into Taco Meat and had a late lunch.

Now I have to figure out what to bring to the second Potluck that was is a little more trick as I think there are going to be about 50 of us there. They told me not to worry about it and just come as their guest but I feel weird showing up with nothing. Maybe I can bake something before that Potluck.

I will ponder the second potluck when hopefully I will have more brain power.

Happy Saturday Everyone

[walkonby]

geesh @SassyAshley , now I feel very sheepish as part of our Saturday was spent at The Mandarin ( hooray for NO TAX! ) for DH's large extended family Christmas get together.
You worked so hard and long by contrast. Hopefully a much deserved break is on the horizon for you?

[SassyAshley]

@walkonby , Thank you, I am starting to think I thrive in the chaos but luckily it is once a year and I have thrown out to the powers that be, maybe we should hire an inventory manager next year because this has become too much for me to continue doing on top of my day-to-day job.

[SassyAshley]

Good Morning Everyone,
I am feeling so done today both mentally and physically but tis the season for chaos and sitting here doing nothing is not an option.

I need to clean my kitchen it is a disaster and again bags everywhere with stuff to put away.

I need to find my Ground Turkey and Sweet Potato Chili recipe as well as my Cornbread recipe.

This Potluck for 50 people still has me stumped what do you make for that many people, Mom suggested making my Chili again but I would need to make a double batch and that won't fit in my slow cooker. I should also mention the reason I am concerned is everyone is signing up for drinks, or we have a lot of people bringing timbits and doughnuts so I am not sure how many main dish options are going to be available.

Now for the if I don't laugh I might cry portion of my week, all of this was going on well I was insanely busy with work and losing my mind.

There is a package I ordered for Mom during Black Friday, this package has gone into expect 6 or 7 times, first I get a notice the label is printed, then I am told it missed the truck, then I am told it missed being scanned at the sorting facility, then it was back where it came from, finally makes it to Toronto, then it misses the truck, then I get another oops the truck message, finally it goes out for delivery, Yay?????? Nope, then I get a message my address does not exist, so I go online to try to fix the issue to be told not only does my address no exist but apparently my whole street doesn't exist. After sitting on hold for over 2.5 hours and being told I must be in a new subdivision they cannot find (my house was built in the 70s) they finally just added my phone number and said a driver would call me. It was supposed to come Friday then got bumped to Saturday but did come Friday, YAY!!!!! I don't have to contact them again.

Then on Thursday I get our my brand new Bread Machine to make Homemade Pizza for Dinner, I scrub her all up put everything in the pan and I plug her in and get nothing, so I try the dining room, pretty sure it wasn't the outlet but wanted to confirm, nope, nothing. Tried resetting it still nope nothing. I went online to see if they still had it in stock because I want to exchange it since I bought it on sale, I bought it for under $100 on Black Friday and it was only $10 or $20 off, not huge savings but put it in my price range. They are now showing it for $244.59 , Mom has requested an exchange and I need to confirm with her if she heard back.

Now the icing on the cake, I have an order I placed Dec 1st, my est date showed the 12, the 12th came and went, I went online to see my new date, the new date is DEC 31ST!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Now to make this worse I go on chat to say WHAT THE and the whole time I am on chat there is a huge banner on their website saying Order Today with Guaranteed delivery by Dec 24th, UM EXCUSE ME!!!!!!!! I can order today and get by Christmas but my order from Dec 1 won't come now until the 31st!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The person on chat was less than hopefully, they just kept saying should and hopefully but nothing concrete until they said they cannot do anything until 5 days after my est date and to contact them, I did try to confirm is from the 12th or the new date of the 31st and they just kept saying your est date but finally after a lot of pushing they said chat with us again on the 20th if it doesn't ship this week. I am not happy and I better get my whole order right now everything is still available but if you are promising all these people orders by Christmas are they getting what I ordered and I am going to get an out of stock message. Oh and to add salt to wound, I get home from inventory to an email from them "You still have 5 days to order and get before Christmas." I JUST WANT THE ORDER I PLACED DEC 1ST.

Well it is 10 am, I have accomplished nothing so time to get my butt moving as there is a lot to get done today but really I just want to curl up on the couch and watch movies but I can't too much to get done.

Happy Sunday Everyone.

[SassyAshley]

OH MY GOSH I have something against the Kidney Beans for this Chili.

I just put the Chili in the Slow Cooker so I just have to reheat it tomorrow because I am super afraid of it not being cooked by the time I need to leave. I put everything in the Slow Cooker, I am stirring it around thinking hmmm it doesn't seem to be filling the Slow Cooker, maybe I should add more Sweet Potatoes, then it hit me, I forgot the Kidney Beans.

Also when I offered to bring the Chili I thought oh I have everything, I have Cooked Ground Turkey in the Freezer, I have Sweet Potatoes and Canned Tomatoes we are good. Then I also forgot the Kidney Beans.

What do I have against these Kidney Beans???????

But turns out this fits in my smaller slow cooker so if I could double the recipe and put it in my bigger slow cooker for the second Potluck but I think I will need more Tomatoes. Turns out most of my tomatoes are crushed which I normally don't buy but I do remember Mom asking for some so maybe I bought them and she never used them? Oh well they are good till 2025, I still have time to use them.

[walkonby]

lol!!! OMG, @SassyAshley , laugh or you'll cry is so accurate. I was following your first post with bated breath, honestly, when deliveries are promised and then
switched to a million different excuses as to why they didn't arrive it presses on our nerves and the BP goes up ^^ .
So insulting to have new offers by stores to " buy now " and we'll for sure have it there by Christmas.

You had me at the kidney beans portion of the text! I was really laughing hard by then but not at you. It was for myself one time I made cabbage rolls, yes actually filling and rolling them up, not a messy or lazy version. We were kind of wondering why they tasted so " different ".
It was the cooked rice. I totally forgot to add rice to the mixture with the meat?

About that amount of people for your upcoming pot luck....50? That can be a crap shoot if as you say many bring the same dish OR just show up with paper plates and utensils, or beverages. We always insisted on a sign up list ( this was at work ), so hopefully there would be an equal amount of appy's, mains, salads and desserts on the table. Despite all of this try to have a really good time at the event no matter what foods show up! ( at least you'll have done your part with that kidney bean less chili. )

Oh and today DH and I have been NON stop at work here. We began at 4 a.m. The end goal is to have his desk and computer brought up from the basement to the now empty bedroom. Then my monstrosity of a wooden desk and computer will be brought out of the dining room and go into the basement. Slugging work. He eventually had to go up to bed and try and catch a few hours of sleep.
He will now have to wait for DS to assist getting my desk downstairs. I miss being able to help, it has me riddled with guilt at times. I've no muscles left to flex....ha ha .

[Ciel21]

Grey day and I'm heading out later to attend the Christmas Party.
Have a squash casserole finishing in the oven.

@Giseledta Cdn Tire has been doing bonus TR events with 150 or 200 spend levels on Fridays.
The flyer ending today has the smaller Old Dutch detergents (some varieties) on sale for $2.50 each. The other flyer that began Thurs or Friday has the larger Old Dutch detergent jug on sale too. Hope to try this brand and get a second jug for someone else.
Thanks for mentioning the new No Frill store in your area, as the prior flyer did not say where store 300 is!