Yummy Saves

Dang it! Dang it! Dang it!

If its not enough we all have 5 million passwords to remember now we have to remember security questions too.

Obviously by the tone of this post I am not going a good job of this.

Now I'm locked out of my checking and savings accounts.

The food basics (a basic sort of grocery store - a cross between a regular grocery store and an aldi) near me is closing.

The guy who decided what goes on the signs for the store closing wasn't the sharpest. The signs in huge lettering had store closing Thursday March 24th.

I don't know if another store is going there or if that location is just gone! Too bad I liked that location cause it was handy, had good hours and was never too crazy.

A friend and I share a subscription to a dinner theatre. Being the thrifty souls we are we go midweek so it is only half the cost it would be on the weekend!

Tonight was Guys and Dolls. I had never seen the performance and really enjoyed it, though I didn't like the voice of one of the singers that much!

Tomorrow morning is going to be painful.

Part of my exciting evening routine is to wash dishes and set up the coffee maker to come on automatically in the AM. Its so nice to wake up to a fresh pot of made coffee!



Anyways, tonight I'm merrily setting up the coffee maker and thinking all is well until a moment or two later when I heard the coffee perking. Setting it all up and then hitting the on button rather than the auto button (the auto button is the one that would have it perking tomorrow morning) is not a frugal activity or a time saver in case you are wondering.. .

Yes, I dumped the coffee and reset up the pot. I really enjoy the hot fresh coffee in the am - and a major money saver as I have pretty much totally kicked the drive though habit.

The official corporate speak is that this isn't really layoffs. While some people (30 in total?) will be laid off at the end of the project it is a "consolidation' project and many of the jobs are relocating to other offices (cheaper rent and salaries in different areas of the company).

There are 40 people in our office that will be laid off including a number that work on our floor. It will not affect our department at all. Some will have on option so officially some will choose to terminate their employment rather than move to a different office. The date this all will happen is between now and the end of 2008.

I don't know who all this affects but I do know at least one person will likely end up unemployed. So while I'm not affected nor is my department it is still sad. We work on the same floor as a number of these people and every few months have a social type event with them (normally a potluck).

There are layoffs being announced at my office today - at least that is what the rumour mill has out.

I'm pretty sure they don't affect the area I work in but I can still feel my stomach churning in worry. My manager is at a meeting about it right now.

A friend who I was chatting with mentioned on the weekend that she had heard we were having layoffs and that a lot of people would be losing their jobs. She knows someone else who works here I think. Not nice when you get advance notice of things from third parties who don't even work for the same compnay before you hear about them from offical channels

Quite often when there are contests that involve food products there is a option for an entry that doesn't involve purchasing the product. Taking advantage of this method of entry can sometimes result in getting a Free Product Coupon - allowing you to purchase the item for the cost of the postage and sometimes a self addressed stamped envelope. This particular offer didn't require the SASE.

So this past weekend I got organized and wrote out 20 entries (the rules allow one request per day via mail) and got them into envelopes, addressed and stamps, that way I can drop one in the mail every couple of days.

I'm planning to pick up a couple of the sauces for myself and likely will give away some of the FPC's as RAOKs.

Can't say I'm impressed!

I just saw a advertisement for a Mastercard on MuchMusic - the Canadian version of MTV. The ad was marketing a credit card to teens. At the end of the ad there was some captioning on the screen about kids ages 13 and up and something about parents needing to give permission.

I think it is a prepaid credit card. But to my mind, teens don't need credit cards before they are able to even properly manage their allowance.

The entire ad is talking about freeing teens from parental control of how they spend their money. Sounds more like a quick way to hook kids into using a credit card to me. Get them hooked on a credit card early and they'll be paying you interest payments forever. Nice eh?

Two thumbs down for Mastercard and MuchMusic

http://www.muchmusic.com/muchmusiccard/
http://www.muchmusic.com/muchmusiccard/teen.asp

I'm so glad I don't own a MasterCard cause if I did I think I'd close it immediately.

Oh just updating this to mention the $39.95 one year "membership fee" plus the $1.50 charged each time Mommy or Daddy reloads it plus a whole host of other fees ... nice deal for Master card ...

I did my normal Sunday cooking spree today.

So far have made a huge crust less quiche (using up the eggs that needed to be used), with broccoli, mushrooms, cheddar, peppers, onion and garlic. A full crock pot of chili is nearly finished cooking and I made up a huge batch of broccoli salad (with red onion and cheese).

Still on the agenda are "healthy shake" chicken thighs (using cornmeal and spices rather than shake and bake) and to make up the cole slaw mix I have.

I'll be eating well next week.

Used $9 worth of coupons today. Effectively got two products for free (it is sweet when the coupon covers the sale price of the product) and got some other items for about 1/3 of their regular cost.

Cashier credited me with $7.60 in coupons. I'm still not quite sure how she did that when being given coupons as follows:

3@$2.00
4@$0.75

Ended up making a trip to the customer service desk for a cash refund of $1.40 to get things straight.

Its really wearying to have to argue and be so on top of things when using coupons. Still my entire order came up to $24 so I did some nice savings on my items.

Went back to the evil store from hell (drugstore wise)this evening. Their customer service was better today. No I didn't complain about the lousy service the other day. I should have but while I'm not too busy to complain about it in a blog I am too busy to do anything about it that is actually constructive.

Sad eh?

Anyways, got the vitamins on sale that were out of stock the other day. The pharmacy assistant told the truth about how long the prescriptions would take to fill, the pharmacist took the time to go through the side effects of the pills with me and the copay only turned out to be (for both of them together) less than $7.

Ironically, or maybe just Interestingly I spent the morning at a pharmacy benefit managers office discussing changing a drug benefit plan for a client I'm involved with and who processes claims for my employer's drug plan. Yes, my claims went through with no trouble even I was playing bad cop at the meeting - my role was to keep asking questions about how costs will increase and asking for stats to prove it!

I splurged on supper out too - a whole $4 - picked up some feista greek salad and some yummy bean salad at the take out counter of the grocery store. I will have to bet the bean salad again if only to work on figuring out the ingredients ( I hate it too fast to pay proper attention.

Went in to the local drug store to get stamps - they sell stamps in books at the cash registers. Two cashiers were working.

Walked up to the cash register only to watch the cashier I approached walk away. Turned around and walked over to the other cash and saw the quickly departing first cashier and said "What happened I got to your cash and you just walked away?"

She looked at me and said "Yes" and continued on her way.

Polite words can not express just how special she made me feel.

Finally it was my time for service and they didn't have the stamps I wanted "Oh yeah we ran out yesterday and don't have anymore". So I walked to the post office counter in the back of the store and I lined up again. Guess it was too difficult for the store to go buy stamps there... I did get my stamps finally, but it took about 10 minutes cause the girl working the counter there had one customer in front of me who had one item and customs forms etc had to be filled out...

Oh and while in the store I saw something else I wanted but they were sold out.

Dang its hard to spend money some days. Yes I did eventually get my stamps.

My friend called Loblaws where we went for the cooking demo last Wednesday. I was allowed to stay for it even though I wasn't on the paid sheet. The chef leading the class was very nice about it!

The girl at Loblaws remembers my friend phoning to register me (and pay for me). But she said she got busy so that she didn't process the order or put me down for it. She said it was her error and that they aren't going to ask me to pay! Excellent customer service on their part to make up for their error and the awkwardness of my not being on the sheet.

After I call ING to get my account unlocked (yeah never did call to get that cleared up), I'll put that $30 into my ING account! Money that you thought you spent that you didn't spend is really found money right?

My life lately has not been abundant with good things. I'm now single again.

Good news: Save money on gas travelling

Bad news: I'm really going to miss him. Not going to be in the US much anymore - so no address for freebees and my recent foray into CVS ECB is for naught. Not really important in the grand scheme of life but still..

Today was the first time I did any of the CVS deals that get you extra care dollars. Was surprised not to even see a note about them on the receipt. Only note was that I get $2.50 off my next sleep aid. I'm using those these days to sleep so likely will use that in the next few days.

Bought 2 Excedrin products - the two of them came to *just* $20 but hopefully I'll get the extra care bucks for $20. Also bought Aleve that was supposed to get me another $1 in Extra care bucks.

In next weeks flyer they mention that buying 2 intuition cartridges gets you $10 extra care bucks. I use intuition so that seems a good deal (though dang it those are expensive, at least I have one $2 off coupon).

If life is really good maybe I can use the extra care bucks I hopefully got today on monday to purchase the intuition and get more extra care bucks..

Haven't done much at all today. Slept in a bit. Went through last weekends paper for coupons. A bit of culling out of expired coupons from my coupon stash. Made lunch. Napped, now surfing.

The nice thing about a lazy day is that you don't end up spending any money.

Have to shower soon though. We are heading over to a friend's house this evening and it would probably be nice if I was dressed and showered. I'm still in my PJ's and its after 4 in the afternoon.

I picked up a case of Smirnoff Ice at the duty free - Also picked up a 12pk of Sleemans Cream Ale (an excellent beer).

The carton for the beer was a bit banged up but it was beer. So long as the bottles were intact I wasn't fussy about the case - it looked like it would hold together to get the beer to where I was going!

Anyway I got to the cash and the cashier said "I'm giving you 10% off because the case is damaged". I thanked her and she said that when people ask they give them 10% off in this circumstance so she offers it to everyone.

I profusely thanked her and made a mental note to ensure that I ask for this in the future if my beer case has a "boo-boo".

I'm usually good about asking for discounts but this one I'd have missed entirely but for this cashier.

Tried the McD's that I found last trip - but their internet wasn't working. A word to the Assistant Manager got me the advise to sit near the TV. She didn't offer to reset the router or even see if it was on.

And where she told me to sit?...Um..what about those people there? She wasn't very helpful. If they claim they have WIFI they should try to manage to have it in the entire restaurant..Or they should teach their staff how to turn it on (my computer didn't find any wireless networks).

I'm at Panera now. Enjoying a coffee and cookie and some blogging! (Do I feel high tech or what?). And bonus, my seat is right beside a plug so I'm borrowing some hydro (the stuff some folks call electricity) to recharge my battery!

Off for the rest of my drive in a few minutes!

This class I took tonight was great. Southern cooking - they made rice and beans, maple glazed veggies, pecan encrusted cod,chicken style chicken and this this great ice cream dish.

I didn't eat before the class. I'm so glad I didn't. The "tasting" was not stingy by any means. The food was awesome. Not fussy but good hearty comfort food. The sort of food you love to eat but can't eat all the time unless you want to gain a lot of weight.

Learnt about starting things like fish and chicken in the fry plan (when breading etc) and then finishing it up in the oven. Probably an old trick for most but one I'd never heard of and one that I'm definitely going to use in the future.

Only low points - Room was cold and I wasn't on the sign up sheet. They let me sit in the class anyways and not pay. But tomorrow my friend will phone and find out what's going on. I love being frugal but I'm not going to be cheap. It was a great class with an excellent instructor. Not sure exactly what happened and I'm too tired tonight to go through my visa bill to figure out what happened. But I'll pay after the fact if it messed up.

Pulled up to the pump. Price was $1.02 a litre (OUCH). Still one can't drive on an empty tank. Put in my debit card. Invalid password. Tried again. Same message.

Went to the booth (this feels almost wrong in today's pay at the pump world). She says that debit doesn't seem to be working right at the pump.

So I prepay $20 using my debit card which had no issues at all this time around.

Go pump the gas. At $19.70 (the tank is no where near full - that's no where near enough to fill up an empty tank these days)the pump refuses to dispense any more gas.

So back to the booth I go. The girl has the change out for me "that happens a lot" she says.

I don't normally stop at this gas station so it isn't like I'll have to actively avoid filling up there in the future. But I won't be back that's for sure.

I am going away for a few days after Wednesday (a Mini March break!) So I kept the cooking simple.

Yesterday I made a crust-less quiche. This week it was made with mushrooms, broccoli, onion, garlic and eggs. Last night I had a hankering for some macaroni and meat with tomato sauce. So I cooked up extra of each. Today I made a spaghetti pie.

Essentially spaghetti pie (though given I used macaroni I probably should call this macaroni pie) is an easy version of lasagna. Pasta goes in the bottom layer in a large casserole dish, mixed with beaten eggs and some Parmesan cheese. On top of that I put a layer of no fat cottage cheese, with a touch of nutmeg in it. The top layer was the pasta sauce that had spinach, mozzerella and lean ground beef in it. I baked this, covered in a 375 degree oven for about an hour. It turned out wonderful and made enough for 8 meals. I actually used no fat ingredients and this qualifies as a core dish for WW.

That's it for the cooking I did today. I didn't sleep well last night and have pretty muched lazed the rest of the day away!

I start leaving the store and hear the lady who was behind me in the line and who I did say a few words to while I checked out say to the cashier about her item "oh the sign says $4.99 but says that price ended yesterday so will I get it at that price". The cashier runs it through and says "no its 6.99 now". I have no idea what "it" was.

That store participates in the Scanning Code of Practise (SCOP). SCOP says that when an item that isn't price stickered rings up at the wrong price (not the price on the shelf) you get it free (if under $10).

http://www.frugalshopper.ca/links/article.php?n=5

Im partway to the door but I hear the exchange clearly and realise they aren't following the SCOP rules and are in effect going to rip this lady off. I turn around and say in a loud voice (I'm not screaming or rude, just enunciating well...) " shouldn't she get it for free under scanning code of practise". The customer in question gives me a huge smile and thumbs up and the cashier suddenly is saying "yes, that's right" and paging a stock boy for a price check.

After the comment and a quick grin to the customer I left, with a great big grin on my face. No idea if she got it or not but feel good that I didn't let them snow her.

Its not a store I shop at regularly so not worried what the cashier thinks of me. I know I made the customer happy. I really hate when store clerks decide that following rules that their store abides by isn't what they are going to do. I don't care if they think that we are getting a deal we shouldn't. The store is part of the program so abide by the rules please.

There is some common sense stuff you can do quietly if you are thinking about trading with someone (be it coupons, gift cards or what not)

Use the search feature on the forum . On most forums you can search by nick and see someone's posts. Failing that google their ID. Look at where the person posts, how they contribute. Then use your common sense filter (the one in your brain).

I'm not saying don't trade with newbies. But why trade with folks who make negative posts, who only post about stuff they want? Did the person make a real introduction if they are new? Are they participating in the board or are they only popping up to ask for free stuff? Do you like their tone? Do they have attitude? What is the tone of their PM?

If your little voice speaks up then don't finalize the trade with them.

Oh and if the trade is too good to be true it probably is, if the person is too eager that can be a flag too!

Common sense. Based on what you've seen of them would you meet them at (insert name of your favourite place to go for coffee) for coffee? If you have no interest in meeting them, don't trade with them.

I don't do many trades online. But yes, I read one too many posts about folks bitching about trades while sipping my morning coffee.

I'm tired this morning, but there is hope. I'm at least a two mug of coffee gal and not a one mug girl. And so far I've only had one mug.

Though I did while the coffee brewed get the dishes moved ahead. So at least the kitchen looks like only a small bomb hit it. Let's not get into what the rest of the place looks like, k?

Some real blog entries to come later as I get organized and moving on stuff that needs to get moving, both financial and otherwise.

Off the top of my head:

At work - 5 passwords (phone, email, internet, server and mainframe). All change randomly at different times.

Phone - only one I can think of

Banking - a whole bunch - debit card, credit card, savings account, phone banking, interent banking

Computer, Email and Web - lets not even go there okay? Wireless, yahoo, email, this website that website.

We aren't supposed to write any down. We aren't supposed to duplicate them and they are supposed to be all random letters and numbers with funny capitalization.

Any wonder I have to call the bank tomorrow to ask them to issue this dolthead a new password cause I did too many wrong tries and locked myself out of the site?

Yeah okay. Anyone have any good (and relatively secure) suggestions? My brain is full, if you know what I mean.

The good thing about working too much and being stressed is that you don't have time to think about spending money (other than an occassional snack or coffee).

The bad thing is you don't have any time to do the stuff you need to do to get your financial house in better order.

I've discovered over the last few months that I really prefer milk in either jugs or cartons. I have noticed when I buy bagged milk that a good part of it normally goes sour. But when it is in a jug or a carton I drink more of it.

Costs a bit more (and i have to remember to return the jug and not toss it so I get my deposit back) but I drink more so I waste less. And maybe environmentally more friendly.

I thought of titling this entry "no more homo bags of milk at my house". Homo is what we called full fat milk here(get your mind out of the gutter) Homogenized is the full word but way to long to write out and too hard to spell. So it is homo milk in popuplar parlance. But I'm a good girl and stick with 1% or skim.

This may just be a regional thing. A gas refinery near here caught fire. So no production out of them. The train guys were on strike, so gas being moved by them. The ubiquitous *they* are saying a month til the situation is back to normal and there are no more shortages.

The result - gas stations closed cause they don't have any gas to sell. At least 2 on my way to work are closed (though strangely not the ones of the company that had the fire.. those seem strangely to have gas again this week). Gas fill up limitations at other gas stations. Prices are almost back to where they were after Katrina.


Gas is about 20cents higher than last week and news reporters are telling us that the gas companies are saying they aren't gouging. Like with the profits they are making they hurting...

Not gouging.. Uh huh... Yeah .. whatever.. and oooooooooh how much is that pretty bridge....?

Made a healthier shake and bake chicken - boneless skinless thighs dredged in cormeal with spices (basil, salt, pepper, paprika etc). Cheaper and healthier than white bread based shake and bake, and just as tasty!

Made an awesome stew with three simmering steaks I got on a day before last day of sale special. Put them in the crockpot with about a 1/4 cups of teriyaki sauce, envelope of onion soup mix and a can of tomato soup. Though salty the gravy turned out rich and thick and the meat fork tender. I cooked barley rather than rice as the starch (leaving out salt - as the gravy turned out salty). I have 5 meals with the barley, green peas and stew.

Also cooked a chicken - another 1/2 price day before last day of sale deal. Baked it with 2 cut up cloves of garlic and an orange all cut up. I used some of the orange zest to rub on the skin of the chicken - again I used the crockpot to cook this. About 6 hours on low and you have an awesome easy chicken! No liquid or anything needed. Quite a bit of this will likely end up in the freezer.

I have some onions to make carmalized onions - again a crockpot dish (yeah I love cooking in the crockpot LOL). I likely will set that up tomorrow night and start it when I go to work on Tuesday. They are super easy but do take 12-24 hours to cook (and I can't remember if last time about how long they took.

I left my debit card behind after using it to pay for groceries. I really have trouble after a long day (or week) in doing any multitasking whatsoever. And packing groceries and getting your card back when you are really tired rates as multitasking.

I only found out I forgot it when a stock boy ran up to the car and handed it to me!

With all the stories of identity theft and what I would do with no debit card .. YIKES! I sat in the parking lot for a few minutes while it sank in just how bad it could have been.