Was this a need or a want? My set of 8 is currently actually a set of four. All my bowls are chipped, and most of the plates.

A need in was I eating off the floor - no. So technically the new dishware is a want.

Lets just say I went crazy today. We got there at 7am and were finished all our shopping around 4. It was a very long day but I'm happy with what I got.

I'm too tired to type more tonight! G'night all!

A friend is a major collector of Fiesta dishes. She's visiting here and tomorrow we are heading to the Homer Laughlin Outlet Sale.

I need new dishes. This could be a very expensive opportunity for me. A fun one. But an expensive one.

http://www.homerlaughlin.com/Outlet/home.asp

I've heard this is quite the sale. The rules on the right hand side of the page make me think that its going to be a zoo.

Oh and we are following this with a trip to a quilt store.

I wonder if Lux Living has a picture of money flying away. I think some of mine might be back in circulation tomorrow "helping" the economy.

I am trying to oven baked fries (the kind from real potatoes with olive oil, salt, pepper and garlic) on a cookie sheet. We don't have any parchment paper.

I thought using parchment paper was a luxury item, but frankly for this it makes the job so much easier that it is almost into the "necessity" category.

Add to shopping list: parchment paper.

I drove down here to the US with my boyfriend - well actually he drove down and I came along with him. Strangely enough no problems at the border (they didn't even look at my id, just wanted to know when I'd be returning to Canada). This balances out some of the times that they've looked through my bags when I've crossed.

Anyways, now I'm down here I have to get home. We looked at flights on the weekend and two stops from PIT to YYZ would run about $220, one way. Lets not even go into how that would route me via miami or orlando. Flights as of yesterday, one way, were $320 and involved a full day and creative routing. A straight "normal" non stop is running over $400 one way - OUCH.

Needless to say flying is out of the question with that sort of pricing.

So we went and looked into rental cars. I can get a rental car for well under $200 (including gas and insurance) and be home in less time than it takes to fly .. YEAH! The driving doesn't thrill me but dang it, I do it all the time.

Oh and I called my insurance company to see if I needed to purchase the car rental insurance or if my coverage covered that. It doesn't but they are going to add it and that will cause my insurance to reduce by $12 this year. Yes I typed that right. Something about a package? I'm pleased but a bit miffed they never told me that before. First time I've ever had my insurance go down because I added a service enhancement.

I wanted to try a website while I was visting here in the US. It is one that helps you match coupons with codes. I checked - my boyfriend is in a zip code they cover.

So I went to enter my visa information so I could partake in the trial offer. Of course, its not set up to to work if your visa billing address is outside canada.

I then write as follows to the help box of the site:

I tried to sign up for the trial offer. 'm in the US visiting my boyfriend but I'm Canadian and your form doesn't allow me to enter in my address in Canada which is my billing address. Too bad. I was hoping to do some great shopping here.

Their response

We are working hard to bring our service to your area. For now, our _____ would be an excellent choice for you.
I recommend that you shop at Safeway in combination with the Tips in our ______

*Sigh* Their service is available where I want it, I just can't pay for it with my visa becuase my billing address isn't where they allow it to be. And safeway? They aren't any where I live at all.

Oh well, I'll go play with flyers

We went to a small regional chain restaurant, very similar to Ponderosa yesterday for supper. I'd asked to go there because we'd never had a bad experience there and I like their salad bar and steaks.

We got there and the experience was poor from the get go. The cashier who takes your order before you are seated couldn't keep her attention on the customers in front of her - she kept interupting to say stuff to another of the employees there. We get to the head of the line after a short wait and the girl is pleasant (not the one with the short attention span) and takes our order.

We are seated and head up to the salad bar. It is almost empty, although a minute or twso into getting a plate an employee came out with replenishments - all very quickly and nicely handled (bonus marks there).

I have that plate and then a second plate of salad. My boyfriend had just ordered salad bar, while I had ordered steak. We realised we had been there 25 minutes and still no steak for me. After 30 minutes we decided that if still no steak we'd just cancel that part of the order and I'd do salad bar too (I was starting to fill up)

At 30 minutes from sitting down, he went and asked them to take the steak off of our menu. The waitress did that with no fuss or muss (very professionally handled and just mentioned they were very backed up).

We go to the cash to pay and the manager asks for our bill. We mention what had happened and he mentions that they had sat us in the wrong place and "lost" our table. Huh? I think we flustered him by not being angry or upset. He ended up taking 20% off of our bill in addition to the steak. This was unexpected and nice of him.

Still, we left there shaking our heads. Different stories are disconcerting. WBest sometimes to not explain and limit explanations to profuse apologies . We'll go back to the chain just not that particular location.

A week or so ago (or a few days, I'm not exactly remembering when) someone posted about the wonders of fried rice as an easy inexpensive meal! I owe you a big thanks.

Today I made up some rice as the leftover rice in the fridge was a few days old, marinated some tofu that we had previously frozen in teriyaki sauce and liquid smoke so it tasted like ham (it actually did), some chopped up frozen veggies and some onion and mushrooms and about 20 minutes later a wonderful, cheap and healthy meal - and a vegan one to boot!

That's what I love about these blogs, the fact that we can peek into what other people are doing and grab some good ideas that work for us.

I'm going back go reading the blogs, hoping someone comes up with some wonderful idea I can use for supper

One of the bonuses of visiting my boyfriend is checking out all the freebees I've requested! There are other benefits of visiting but I'll save you writing about all of those here

Kotex - via WM
Viactiv - via WM
Sensodyne - via WM
Herbal Essence - via WM
Advil PM - via WM


Kashi TLC Bar
Quattro Titanium Razor
Schick Intuition Plus + $2 Coupon
Jergens - + $1 Coupon

The only ones of the above that came injured was the Herbal Essence sample that came wrapped in a post office baggy apologizing for the damage it had recieved in transit. The envelope smelled pretty and is going in the garbage as it looks a bit damp.

A nice mail haul!

The past few days have not been easy. Shopping and good deals have been far from my mind.

Ended up with a couple of nice deals by accident. The hair place I walked into to get a cut and colour before the service was having a 20% off sale. The cardigan/jacket was on sale for $10 off. Sheer luck.

By the way, what is it with camisole tops these days. Could find lots that said "skanky" and/or "I raided my underwear drawer and am going to wear this as outerwear". It was harder than I thought it would be to find a nice one that was conservative and not cheap looking.

The service went well though I did my share of crying.

I'm in PA now for a week. Managed to scoop three inserts for the paper. So hoping I managed to get some good'uns. Will be fun to scoop some good deals down here in the US. I'm way more in tune with the coupon game at home than I am here. I'll be off to read flash's site tomorrow for tips *grins*.

On one of the board's I'm on someone was looking for a copy of a magazine. For some reason the publisher decided to send me two copies of issue of that magazine. Of course I still had both copies when I saw the post. So when she was looking for the issue, it felt right to offer to mail one of my copies to her.

I did, and was offered reimbursement of the mailing expenses- as I expected to be.

Right now I really don't care about getting postage repaid or more coupons. I did expect the offer however deciding to take her up on it is another thing altogether. So I sent her a note telling her to consider herself the victim of a RAOK.

Damn that feels good. To help someone out. Sure it isn't the most frugal thing it the world to do but what is frugal for my pocketbook isn't good for my spirit. Spirits need to give in order to experience the joy of helping others.

My spirit feels good right now. This makes me feel closer to my mother, as her spirit was one that valued giving rather than getting.

After a busy day dealing with tons of paperwork and stuff, I ordered a pizza and some wings tonight. My bother and my father decided to get a bite at the bar where they were watching hockey. I wasn't in the mood where I could deal with a bar night.

Well the pizza and wings was was a waste of $15. Blech. I don't mind spending money on food out (or ordered out) but dang it, I want more than poor or mediocre when I do.

Today wasn't an easy day, as my Mum passed away around 6am this morning. Her heart gave out.

She has been suffering with Alzheimers and a hip that never healed correctly after surgery earlier this year. I'm glad her suffering is over and that she is at peace. In many ways the mother I had growing up has been gone for a while. Alzheimers is a disease that robs you of people even while they are alive. Mum was 80 this past July.

Both my bother and I travelled up to my fathers (a 6 or 7 hour drive) I'm writing this from my fathers north of the northern shore of Lake Huron. A gorgeous drive with beautiful fall colours even though this morning around dawn there where thunderstorms. Mom loved this drive and today it was truly gorgeous

The silliest stress today .. being at a 1/4 tank of gas, deciding to go on to the next gas station and then finding it closed and being 50-70 miles from the town you are heading to (which may or may not have a gas station open). I lucked out and about 20 miles along did find a gas station open. Easier to think about stupid stuff than the grief.

We did some great decision making tonight. Mom is going to be cremated. We are having a service for her in Toronto, which my Sister in law is organizing. Tomorrow is bank/insurance/cremation/lawyer day. YUCK. And we have to get her stuff out of the Long Term Care Facility she was living in.

Tomorrow isn't going to be fun either with all the details. I'm glad we are here to help my Dad with the details.

Someone, likely taking a happy pill or two came up with a slogan "Have a Happy Period. Always". Any period that is over is a happy one. Anyone where everyone emerges alive is a good one.

http://www.always.com/index.jsp

I just signed up for a sample package from there. Part of me (oh who am I kidding - every part of me) really hopes the sample package includes a bottle of prescription happy pills, a large bottle of kahlua and a family sized bar of swiss chocolate. That would guarantee a happy visit from Auntie Flo, wouldn't it?

It will probably instead contain a sample that will be handy for a teenage girl I know

Have a nice day

Those were my two expenses "du jour".

One of my extravagances is that I pay someone to clean my house. Yes I could do it myself but I choose not to. Being careful with money allows me this luxury. Today I spent for 2 cleaning sessions - this one and the one in two weeks.

I also loaded up on paper towel. The drug store was having a one day sale of 8 rolls for $1.99 - maximum 4 packages (32 rolls). Even though this is the cheap stuff the price is amazing and its worth using two sheets of this to one of the premium brand sheets. I'd have gone back for more but its bulky stuff to store and I'm in an apartment.

Oh and the cat is doing well. He's eating up a storm. He loves the new food. Still having problems with him not using the litter box but hopefully as the meds kick in and he gets stronger that will settle down.