Yummy Saves

Just to prove I'm a geek I did a spreadsheet of all the fiesta I bought, how much I paid vs how much the MSRP is and the "sale price on the web is).

I spent $147 on the Fiesta I bought. Had I bought all the pieces full price the MSRP the total would have been $854. Had I bought the pieces on sale (prices are from Macy's sale prices posted on the web and dinnerwareusa.com's sale prices) I'd have spent $592 to purchase what I bought. Sales taxes and shipping/gas are excluded from the above figures.

If you feel like confirming just how geeky I am please feel free to look at my spreadsheet. This was the first thing I've done on Google Docs. Geekiness loves company

Here is a picture of my new pretty fiesta dishes bought at the factory tent sale a few weeks ago.

Aren't they pretty?

I went with a co-worker to the "buffet" at Whole Foods. This proved once again, that I have no abiilty to control the size of my portions. Usually at a buffet the only punishment from this is shown on the butt, hips, thighs and stomach. However at Whole Foods, because you pay by the ounce I also paid for this in the pocket book.

Lunch however was very tasty. I'd love to get the recipe for the spicy thai black rice salad.

I picked up Nature Clean floor cleaner from there to replace the Pinesol with, so at least I can safely clean. However I will start hunting for coupons too - though I don't expect the same success finding them as is possible with the mass marketed cleaners from Lever and P&G.

Okay so i really should say bad coupon user. No, that won't work either. Disorganized coupon user. Now coupons haven't been high on my list of priorities lately.

But I know someone sent me this coupon. I know that the sale on it is for less than the face value of the coupon. And I know right now I can't find the blasted coupon

*sigh*

I hate this sorta thing.

And they make them sooooooooo small and easy to miss place.

On the agenda is a major clean up of my Canadian Coupons and my US coupons.

It is another blog entry but I'm clipping the coupons for the US too for when I'm there but I'm not really using them. I think the solution is a price book for the US and Canada - will have to be paper so I can carry it and not too big.. *sigh*.

WHY IS IT SO DIFFICULT TO GET ONE'S ACT TOGETHER SOMETIMES?

Hear endth this blog entry.

.. is when you discover you have a sensitivity to the product. I have a nice (but not embarrassing) stash of PineSol bought on sale and with coupons. The last 2 or 3 times I've used it I've found it has triggered a headache.

Being frugal is using up a product that is slightly sub par. Being silly is using a product that gives you a migraine.

I'm going to get rid of it and swtich to something more natural/organic. Hopefully someone I know likes the stuff and I can give it away rather than toss it.

A three dollar refund from my complaint about the two non working dryers in the laundry room! Quickly sent. Kudos to them for that.

Got to thinking about it though - must cost them significantly more than $3 to issue it (cheque stock, bank fees, envelope, mailing etc). The cost of not upkeeping their machines is pretty steep. No wonder it costs so much to do a load!

First day back at work since my Mom died. I had scheduled vacation last week so I took that too and ended up being off nearly two weeks rather than 1. A really really dull day here - poured rain all day.

Silly spending - breakfast lunch and supper eaten out. *sigh*. About $15 in total.

Weird purchase pedialyte. My cat spent the last week at the kennel as I was out of the country. The girl who runs the kennel suggested adding a bit of pedialyte to his wet food to up his liquids even more. So I bought that. We'll see if it meets the "kitty approval test".

Rented a car to come home today. Why is it all rental cars are white? Car was easy to find when I stopped as I rented it in PA and was driving it to ON and the plates on it were FL. That's one well travelled car

For the record, its fun trying to explain FL plates to the customs person when you never were in FL. I think I went on a bit too much with the explanation as she waved me through after a few more questions. The only question I don't normally get asked is if I am carrying a gun and ammunition. I entered the US a week ago - showed no ID (was in my BF's car). Drove home today in a rental car - showed no ID. That surprised me in both directions.

My minor pet peeve - regular radio on this drive sucks. Their advertising says "all cars have sirius radio". Well all fullsize and up do. I rented a wee little thing. It didn't. I might write to them and say that having a brochure that says "all cars have satellite radio" is a wee bit demoralizing when you are in radio no mans land with no satellite radio. I got to listen to some dweeb go on about CBS not showing the last 5 minutes of the Steelers game - I gather it was a slow news day.

We went to a favourite regional chain on friday for dinner with a friend from out of state. We ended up at a location that we have had issues with in the past. We should have known better...

A very nice hostess seated us. Then we sat and sat and sat. As our guest from out of town stated she had time to read the menu seven times before a waiter showed up at the table. He finally showed, said he was "busy" and took our orders. Along with our orders we requested the number for corporate head office.

This, not surprisingly, brought Larry the manager to your table. Larry did his thing, apologized profusely etc. He was pretty good, though he'd have been better had he not told me that I said one of the orders was take out when I had told him that it wasn't - we did get that did get straightened out to our satisfaction. There were other things - like the two staff members that spent the entire time we were there "hanging out" with friends or family at some tables our lines of sight,and the staff's inability to clear our dishes in a decent time (2 of us had their salad bar)

We were never angry or upset, although we were clearly not happy and communicated that. We eat at this chain frequently (we had been at another location the night before). Therefore when Larry offered to buy us dinner we accepted.

When we left we walked out past the cash register and sat in the car getting ready to leave he parking lot. The best moment of the night came then as the security guard knocked on the window of the car and asked to see our receipt. Larry, bless his heart, bought our dinner, but forgot to tell the security guard we weren't going to be paying. We got that straightened out without having to go back inside but, what an ending to our visit.

The Dishes I got are Fiesta. I'm so happy with them and can't wait to get home and replace my old chipped set with these nice new ones. I'm even more excited that these dishes are "open stock" as I didn't get suckered into any of the discontinued colours (at least so far).

My last 2 sets were not open stock. It will be nice to be able to replace only what I need in the future and not have to start from scratch with new dishes.

I purchased 4 full place settings (as well as some serving dishes) and the majority of two more - my goal is to have between 6 and 8 full place settings. But I didn't need to do that all at once. I had hit my limit on what I wanted to spend in this go around.

This will function as both every day and "good china" given the china I got from my mother is definitely in the "too good to use category".

In the next few days calculate the retail value of what I bought (and probably take pictures too). We are estimating that I paid like 25% of what I would spend if I bought this at a department store.

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.

I live in an apartment and use the building's coin operated laundry facilities. I have contemplated getting my own in the apartment but they'd have to be portable and I do a lot of my laundry at my boyfriends or when I visit my parents (have laundry will travel). So the cost/convenience equation has never tipped in favour of buying. There is something about being able to do many loads of washing and drying at once. If you get behind you are caught up in 2 hours regardless of how many loads you have when you use a laundromat. And I don't have to go outside, the facilities are a short elevator ride away.

Days like this one though make me very tempted. Had three loads of bedding thanks to my meezer peeing willy nilly all over the place the last few days. Got it all washed no problem. Moved it to dry. Dryer 1 - worked fine. Dryer 2 motor wouldn't work so moved it to dryer 4. Dryer 3 was tumbling away for a while until I realised that there was no heat drying the clothes. So moved it all around to get the most dry I could. Lots of fuss later I have 3 loads of mostly dry stuff - two blankets though aren't quite dry.

I did write to Coinamatic to tell them about their lousy machines and even lousier service of the machines and asked for a refund for the cost of the machines that didn't work and for my time being wasted. Hey I can ask right?

Yeah I know its only $3 out of pocket but its the little things that are the most annoying. And this one is high on the list. We'll eff if a refund comes. I'm not really expecting to get anything for the fact that it all took longer but figures it never hurts to ask.

Well okay for a 23 year old cat. He passed on his tests other than UREA - which he has way too much of. Oh and he's also got arthritis (though he called it something else) in his spine. So he's on prescription food (anyone know of a cheap way to get Hills KD prescription cat food?), some vitamins, and 2 types of tablets and he goes back to the vets in 3 weeks.

The food and meds and a couple of the tests all ran to another $150. Having pets is EXPENSIVE.

He's back home. He adores the food and is eating up a storm. Now to get him to poop in the litter box. I might have to buy something with shallower sides that he can get into easier. I'm going to check at the dollar store The original use doesn't need to be for pets.

My wallet is way lighter but I'm blessed by having my finances in order such that I can do this without credit or anything like that.

I'm off to snuggle with Mao )

Found a vet to bring Mao to this morning.

He is still having intermittent trouble walking but is happy and eating well. I have seen him drinking both last night and today.

The vet found him to be dehydrated, have a low body temperature and there same sore spots on his tummy. Mao actually yipped and growled when a couple of spots were prodded and pressed.

I left him at the hospital. They are doing a full blood work up, a full urine analysis and full xrays to determine exactly the state of his health and what the next steps should be. The vet is saying that I should get full information to base my decision on - there may be things I can do to keep him comfortable or it may be time to make a full decision.

The vet isn't suggesting that I do anything radical to keep him alive just that I base my decision knowledge. I liked the vets attitude and demeanor. And I do like this approach. If I can keep Mao going through reasonable measures I am happy to do that. Heck, I'd be more than estatic to do that

Unfortunately knowledge is expensive - the bill will be (unless something is added) $574. This makes me very greatful that I am careful with my money so that I have it at a time like this.

I pick him up this afternoon and get the xray results then. Blood work and urine tests should be available tomorrow.

My cat is very old. I've had him since 1989 or 1990 - and when I got him I was told that he was 7 or 8 years old then. So he's now very very old. Even if he wasn't that old then he was definitely not a kitten. Now he's blind and deaf. But he's a purr monster and has a good appetite, and loves to be snuggled and cuddled.

Today I came home and found him lying on the floor someplace I never normally find him. That alarmed me. I picked him up and he purred and seemed happy to see me. Must have left him on the bed when I went to get changed (he likes to be carried). Well came back later and he was still there - that is unusual. He peed on the bed. *sigh*. I don't think it really got through to the mattress so the mess is "cleanupable".

But then I realised just how bad his leg is. He's having trouble walking Yesterday I spent some money buying a couple of baby litter boxes - he's had a few accidents lately.

My vet has said the last few years to enjoy every moment with him. The vet isn't in this weekend and I'm scheduled to go to my parents - 6 hours away. He is an excellent traveller and could come with me - I normally don't take him for quick jaunts but with his mobility he'll hardly be more cooped up than when he is in the car. I'm also considering kenneling him for the weekend.

I'm not really sure what to do. My BF just reminded me that this has happened with him before - him having trouble walking.

Sorry not a very on topic blog. Family crisis tend to do that to me. The only bit of this that has to do with frugality is that I am wondering (second guessing and beating myself also work in place of wondering) if it is my being frugal that isn't pushing me to the vet with him or the reality that he is a cat over the age of 20.

I made up a bag (1 pound) of dry black eyed peas the other day - soaked overnight in water (the quick soak method I find can lead to not soft enough beans), then the next day cooked for about an hour. They turned out perfectly. Soft but not mushy.

Did some research. You can freeze cooked beans and a drained can equals approximately 1.5 cups of cooked beans.

So for 97 cents I have the equivalent of 4 cans of beans. I have no idea if I looked if i could find a pound of black eyed peas (dried) for less than that - probably.

I find it very hard to find cans of beans for 25 cents or less each. At times I've spent $1 per can though around 70cents is more common.

After this mornings incident (my last blog entry) I came home to a kitchen that smelled quite ripe. Note to self. Tossing meat waste itno garbage means that you should be taking aout the garbage within the next hour... And yes, *sigh* I did spray some oust. I seem to be able to
tolerate a bit of that - bought to cover up smoke smells from when my mom visits.
While I hate her smoking she's 80, has a bad hip, and has alzheimers. Of the people I lecture about smoking or wish they'd quit I can't bring myself to even suggest she should.

On a good note. The store had $1 off coupons on the brand of milk I like and I needed milk.